


Something Wicked This Way Comes

by sendatsu



Series: This Isn't How It Works On Teen Wolf! [1]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Monster Hunters, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Animal Transformation, Gun Violence, Harm to Animals, M/M, Past Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Slow Build, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Violence, technically werewolves but jic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-12
Updated: 2014-08-25
Packaged: 2018-01-24 10:45:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 39,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1602143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sendatsu/pseuds/sendatsu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kozmotis thought his life was over after the bite.  Forget hunting, he was a monster - and he knew what to do with monsters.</p><p>Then Jack Frost showed up and made a mess of everything.  Turns out, Koz had at least one more hunt left in him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. An Awkward Meeting

They met in the woods where Kozmotis had gone off to die.

Only now could he fully appreciate Jack’s courage. Not everyone would see a man alone in the woods with a gun to his head and intervene. At the time, he was more frustrated than anything. He’d gone out into the middle of nowhere so he wouldn’t be found.

It wasn’t just that he hadn’t wanted to be stopped; he hadn’t wanted his remains found. A gunshot to the head wasn’t the prettiest of death and he didn’t want any of his friends to see him like that. But it had to be a gun. A silver bullet really was the only option he had left. He’d already survived sleeping pills and even arsenic.

He didn’t want to hang himself. Drowning seemed like too many things could go wrong. He couldn’t bleed to death, he always healed too quickly, even if he worked to keep the wound open, eventually he passed out from blood-loss and the wound healed on its own.

His one attempt at jumping off a cliff had left him broken and healing for days at the bottom of a ravine. By the time he was well enough to drag himself back home there had only been a few hours to spare before night fell and brought the moon with it. 

Koz had lied and said he went on a hunt and injured himself. North had been furious with him for days. Koz had to put up with angry glares on top of the suspicious glances North had thrown his way ever since the bite. Those glances had steadily increased as time went on; Koz knew if he didn’t manage to kill himself this time, he might not get the chance again.

Kozmotis hadn’t told North about his plan to die. North was a great hunter, but a greater friend. He probably would have helped Koz end it, just so Koz wouldn’t have to be alone. Then he’d spend the rest of his life wracked with guilt. Seraphina would never have forgiven him, which was unacceptable because North was the only person Koz could trust to care for his daughter. This way, he was the one she wouldn’t forgive. That was just fine. He could handle her anger; he could even handle never seeing her again, so long as she was safe.

Kozmotis wrote both North and Seraphina letters and handed them off to a lawyer with the same instructions he’d given before jumping off the cliff: If you don’t hear from me in a month, give this to North.

Not an unusual request. He always left instructions for what to do if something should happen to him when he went off to hunt. The only difference now was that the monster he was hunting was himself.

It helped that the lawyer in question knew about hunters. Sanderson was a round, cheerful man who proved that not everyone who knew about monsters needed to hunt them to be useful in stopping them. He’d talked about that in his letter to Sera. No matter what Bunny said, he didn’t want her to take after him - especially with how things had turned out in the past few months.

He’d been like Bunny once too, over-zealous and hungry for revenge. He’d started hunting thinking he could make the world safer for his daughter, but now he knew he couldn’t wipe out all the evil in the world. But he could end himself. Sera would at least be safe from him.

Until Jack found him.

“Oh God. Um… please don’t.”

Koz opened his eyes in shock to see a white-haired teenager standing just at the edge of the clearing. He was filthy, but beneath the dirt he could see patches of incredibly pale skin. The boy’s blue eyes were wide. With a sickening lurch in his stomach, Koz realized he could smell his fear. It fizzled, acidic and tangy against the back of his throat. He hadn’t been able to smell fear before - his powers were progressing.

He really needed to hurry up and die.

But not now. He pulled the gun from his head. He wanted to die, not traumatize some poor bystander. Besides, if he killed himself with a witness, the police would get involved. He didn’t want to be found, he didn’t want Seraphina to know how he killed himself and – God – one of his friends would have to identify his body. He had to get this boy out of here and convince him not to call the police.

Koz smiled as if he hadn’t just been caught with a gun to his head.

“Sorry to scare you,” he said, tucking his gun back into its holster at his waist.

The boy did not looked convince. He stepped forward cautiously and Koz saw that his feet were bare and his pant-legs were torn and muddy. “Are you alright?” He asked Koz nervously.

“Fine.” Koz stood up and did his best impression of someone who wasn’t trying to off himself. “Sorry to interrupt your hike.”

“Yeah, not hiking.” The boy stepped closer slowly as if afraid that Koz might disappear if he weren’t careful. “So…” He swallowed. “So I’ll avoid talking about—” He gestured towards Koz, eyeing his gun. “I’m super lost and super hungry. If you could help me maybe?”

“Of course.” Anything to get him to leave.

“Great! Thank God! I’ve sort of been out here a few days. I’d kill for a cheeseburger.”

“A few days?”

“Yeah, like almost a week? Can you help me out?”

Koz eyed him, suddenly suspicious. A fair, lithe, seemingly young, oddly beautiful, and barefoot stranger in the woods? He was no expert on folklore, but he was sure the young man before him could set off a few hits for a magical creature. Human-shaped monsters were so tricky.

He scented the air, but all he could smell was fear. ‘Well’, he thought, ‘if he’s a normal human I’ll help him out. If he’s a monster… well, I did come out here to die.’

“Alright,” Koz said. “I’ll take you back the way I came. But ah…” He winced. “I walked here from Claussen.”

“So we’re close?” Jack looked around as if he’d spot a set of golden arches over the treetops.

“It’s a two day hike.”

“What?” Jack’s shoulders slumped. He looked down at the pack at Koz’s feet. “Of course…” He groaned. “Of course!” He threw his hands up.

“I was…” Koz felt the need to explain. “I was trying to find some place private.”

“And you probably didn’t pack for a return trip either.”

Koz grimaced. He had half an energy bar and a bottle of water.

“Well, did you bring two bullets, cause it’s looking like that’s the only way I’m getting out of here!”

“It’s fine,” Koz said. “I know how to survive in the wild. We’ll be fine.”

Jack stared at him, looking strangely panicked. He glanced down at Koz’s gun and took a deep breath, seeming to come to a decision. “Okay,” he said. “We can stop by my cabin. I’ve got some food stashed there.”

“You have a cabin?”

“I found a cabin. Now it’s my cabin.”

“Fair enough. Lead on, ah… what was your name then?”

“Jack.”

“Kozmotis.”

“Interesting.”

“So I’m frequently told.” Koz gestured for Jack to take the lead. “Let’s not waste daylight.”

Jack looked up at the sky as if suddenly aware that it was mid-afternoon. “This way,” he said, setting off at a quick pace. Koz followed after, frowning as the scent of fear filled the air.

*

Jack may not have been able to find his way out of the forest, but he made his way quite easily to the cabin.

The building looked old but sturdy. There was a set of steps leading up to a porch that spanned the entire front of the cabin. The windows were boarded over and the door looked significantly newer than the rest of the building.

“There’s running water and electricity and a little bit of food stored up, so I thought – y’know – somebody would come along. But nobody’s come and there’s not even a road nearby or anything…” Jack’s ramblings trailed off.

There wouldn’t be a road, Koz thought. Someone had spray-painted a sign on the door. To anyone else it would look like graffiti, but Koz recognized the elegantly shaped ‘G’.

‘Guardians’ was an old term used by hunters, supposedly since the middle ages. Nobody in America used the term ‘guardian’ for hunters anymore, but the symbol still stuck.

It was no wonder all the appliances worked. Koz didn’t recognize the building, but he was sure that it belonged to a hunter who was keeping it maintained in case he needed to return to it.

Jack lead Koz up the cabin steps and walked inside, not noticing when Koz didn’t follow. The deck stank. It was pungent and strange and it made the back of Koz’s neck itch in a way that was becoming more and more familiar. His body wanted to change. Something about the deck made his other half want to come out. Koz swallowed bile and forced himself to cross the threshold.

Jack stood watching him nervously. He glanced outside where the sun was beginning to set.

Koz looked around. There was a mattress on the floor in one corner, a table in another, then a row of cabinets, complete with sink, microwave, and fridge. The last corner had a desk and chair. On the wall by the bed was a fireplace and directly across from that, by the kitchen, was a door leading to a small, add-on bathroom.

Koz walked toward the kitchen area to explore their options. There were some extremely stale beef jerky, expired cans of chilly, and a mostly eaten box of poptarts. Koz began to carefully pack all of them into his bag along with a can-opener he rescued from a drawer by the sink.

Jack hovered at the edge of his vision. Koz ignored him. He was probably going to have to find a new place to die after this. Not to mention Jack very well might reward his help by telling the authorities about his intentions. He might be locked away and then when the moon was full, he’d massacre a ward of psych patients. Wonderful.

Somehow he’d have to get Jack home and leave as quickly as possible. God, but why did he have to give Jack his name? What a rookie mistake to make! It didn’t even matter that he hadn’t given Jack his last name – after a slightly drunk North had thought it fun to check, he’d found that he was the only ‘Kozmotis’ on the east coast.

‘Maybe—’ He found himself hopefully thinking as he raided the cabin’s refrigerator. ‘—maybe he won’t be able to spell it properly.’

“Um…” Jack’s voice cut through his thoughts. “Should we wait until morning?”

Jack stank of fear. Koz made himself sniff a bag of cheese sticks, pretending to be checking for freshness when really the moldy cheese was just less offensive than Jack’s fear.

“We still have time before dark,” Koz said, setting the cheese aside and standing to check the freezer. “I know the woods well enough, we can travel at night.” He knew the woods at night better than he did by day – especially since he was bitten. Night vision was the first ability to appear after the bite.

“Yeah, but…” Jack bit his lip. “There’s… animals at night. Like bears and… and wolves.”

Something about the way Jack said it made Kozmotis pause. “Oh?” He said, feigning interest in a few boxes of frozen pies chilling in the freezer. “Have you seen any animals?”

“Yeah.” Jack spoke hesitantly and Koz looked at him. Jack shifted his weight and didn’t meet his eyes. He wrung his hands for a second, then stuffed them into the pocket of his hoodie. “I didn’t really see…” he stammered. “Maybe it was a bear. I’ve found… bones. So… yeah, I just don’t want to wind up bear food.” He bit his lip again and when he looked back towards Koz his glance fell onto Koz’s gun.

His behavior was familiar. When Koz was a police officer, he’d seen it in victims and witnesses to crimes too horrible to accept. It was the same when hunting, but worse. It was hard to accept that Daddy killed Mommy; it was even harder to accept that Daddy turned into a monster and ate Mommy.

“Alright,” Koz said. “We’ll wait until morning.” And then maybe he’d see what he was up against.

“Okay, cool!” Jack’s whole mood seemed to brighten. “You want some poptarts?”

“Does the microwave work?”

“Yeah.”

“Then it’s better we eat what we can’t take with us.” Koz pulled a frozen cherry pie from the freezer.

“That works too.” Jack laughed and it was surprisingly sweet and easy. “Who doesn’t want pie for dinner?”

“Indeed,” Koz said, a little surprised by Jack’s sudden enthusiasm. “It’s the little things that make life worth living.” He remarked, mostly to himself, as he unwrapped the packaging. He almost didn’t notice the odd look Jack gave him, but when he turned to look at him properly, the young man was back to normal, smiling nervously.

*

Koz quickly realized he’d made a mistake. He was significantly more prepared to fight a monster in the dark than he was to spend extended periods of time alone with strangers.

Jack seemed to be searching for inspirations in the remains of his dinner, bending the edge of the paper plate between his fingers. “So…” Jack searched for something to say. “So… Kozmotis! That’s a unique name, is it…” He thought a moment. “Russian?”

“Norwegian.”

“Oh, cool! Is that where you’re from?”

“I’m from England. My grandfather was from Norway.”

“Oh, cool.” Jack tapped his hands on the table and stared own at the sticky pink pie remains on his plate.

“So what brought you to America?”

“My late wife got a job here.”

“Oh! Oh man, um… I’m sorry.” Jack looked devastated. Koz smiled weakly, trying to be reassuring. 

“It’s perfectly alright. She died many years ago.”

“I’m still… geez. I’m sorry.” Jack fidgeted, opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Koz was a little thrown before realization hit. “Oh, that wasn’t why I was trying to – no. It was years ago. I mean, of course I miss her, but that’s not why.”

“Oh.”

There was a long stretch of silence between them before Jack spoke again. “Do you… want to talk about that?”

Koz couldn’t help a wry smile from crossing his lips. “You’re remarkably kind to offer, but unfortunately my troubles can’t be fixed by talking them out.”

“Okay!” Jack smiled weakly. “Well, apparently we’re going to be spending a couple of days together, so if you change your mind…”

Koz seriously doubted it. “I’ll let you know. Thank you.”

Another awkward pause. 

“So, where are you from in England?”

“London.” 

“So what could Pennsylvania offer that London couldn’t? If you don’t mind me asking.”

“My wife got a position at the college, as well as at the college’s museum of Anthropology.”

“I’ve been there,” Jack with a smile. “It’s a pretty cool place. Especially the Folklore section, they have the craziest art there.”

“That was her department actually.” Koz said, relieved to have a line of conversation to follow. “She didn’t pick out the displays but she wrote the little information plaques next to them.”

Jack’s smile was pinched as he bit his lip and Koz smiled wryly. “It’s alright, she knew people didn’t usually read them.”

“I’m sorry.” Jack winced. “Next time I go.” He put his hand on his heart in promise.

“It’s alright,” Koz said. “She was mostly there as a professor anyway.” She’d taught European and Supernatural folklore.

Nobody told them the man she’d replaced had been a hunter’s assistant. People came asking strange questions about monsters from folklore, asking where to find them, how to kill them, and she’d answered as best she could and brought the funny stories with her. They’d laughed at the strangeness of it all and traded ideas to explain it away.

Nobody told her that the ‘G’ carved in her office doorknob meant anything special. Nobody told her how that ‘G’ could make her a target.

Koz felt that familiar itch rise along the back of his neck. The moon had risen. It wasn’t full, but it was getting there. 

Part of what had stopped Koz from carrying out his suicide sooner was his need to make sure he knew what days he could control the change. He needed to know that if he ever had an incident like the cliff again, he would be in control for as long as possible. He should have been safe for a week or so at least. 

Still, the itching didn’t stop. It grew. Koz’s heart-rate picked up, he urged himself to remain calm. Fear only made it worse.

He looked toward Jack. God, if he turned, he’d hurt Jack. Jack seemed oblivious to Koz’s inner turmoil though. He was staring at the door. The scent of fear flooded Koz’s senses at the same time that Jack jumped up, ran to the door, and slid the lock-bolt in place.

There was a moment of silence where Jack stood by the door, panting and shaking and Koz sat staring at him, momentarily distracted from the urge to change. Then there came a creak of wood outside. The steps up to the deck groaned softly as something heavy made its way to the door. 

Jack backed away, his face white as a sheet while Koz stood and silently walked towards the door. 

He could hear heavy breathing on the other side of the door. 

Bang!

The door rattled in its frame as the creature outside pushed against it. Jack let out a yelp and clapped his hands over his mouth.

The itching had stopped growing along Koz’s neck and now sat at the base of his skull as a faint ache. Fear slipped away as old instincts kicked in. Koz pulled his gun from its holster and crept towards the cabin window. On the other side of the wall, he could hear the beast doing the same.

The slats across the boarded windows were just far enough apart for Koz to see a long, furry snout and two gleaming, yellow eyes glaring at him. He stared back, even and unafraid.

There was a slight draft coming from the bottom of the window where Koz could smell the same pungent, feral stink he’d sampled on the deck. He took care to commit it to memory. There was a snuffling sound from outside as the beast sniffed him in turn.

There was a gleam of white through the dark as the creature bared its teeth and let out a tremendous snarl.

Koz stepped away from the window calmly. “It’s a werewolf.”

“I hate how matter-of-factly you said that,” Jack said.

“Because that’s what it is.”

There was little need for keeping up pretenses when the monster in question was so obviously real. Koz looked over and saw Jack huddled in the back corner against the cabinets, as far from the window as he could go.

“I knew it,” Jack groaned. “God. This is perfect. A werewolf!”

Koz felt now would not be a good time to come out as a werewolf himself. “You knew it?”

“He comes every night, only at night, and he obviously isn’t a wolf!”

“He comes every night?” Koz left the window and began to examine the walls of the cabin. He looked down at the baseboards and saw that the door had the same baseboard running along the bottom of the door. He reached to touch it and felt the subtlest of prickling along his fingers that promised pain if he got any closer. “Rowan wood,” he muttered.

“Rowan what?”

The wolf moved from peering through the window and padded back towards the door, it’s claws clicking against the deck wood.

“Mountain ash.” Kozmotis explained, “It wards off magical creatures. He won’t be able to get in.”

Jack let out a slightly hysterical laugh. “I think you’ve been watching too much Teen Wolf there, buddy.”

Koz tucked his gun away. “I don’t remember there being anything about mountain ash in Teen Wolf.”

“The… the one vet guy uses it.”

Koz frowned. “I don’t remember there being a vet either.”

“The vet who’s really suspicious?” Jack seemed to forget his fear for a moment. “He’s like a witch doctor or something?”

“I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about. This is Teen Wolf with Michael J. Fox right?”

Jack’s fear disappeared entirely as his expression fell into confusion. “From Back to the Future?”

“And Teen Wolf.”

“I’m talking about the MTV show, you old fart!”

Koz burst out laughing. 

Jack sputtered indignantly. “Why are you laughing?! There’s a werewolf outside the cabin and you’re— and we’re talking about fucking Teen Wolf.”

Koz sobered. “He’s not going to get inside and… and you just called me an old fa—” He couldn’t even say it. He pressed a hand to his mouth to muffle his laughter.

“You are an old fart! And you’re also the worst person to get trapped with by some psycho werewolf. God, why me?” Jack buried his face in his knees and wrapped his arms around his head.

Koz tried to sober his mood. He was used to North – who was so seasoned to being trapped by monsters he knew to find the humor in the situation. He’d never handled a rookie in his life. He tried to remember how he’d felt when this was new to him and winced. It had been horrible.

“Alright,” he said, sobering himself. “He can’t get in, but if you like, I can sit up and keep an eye on him while you sleep.”

Jack raised his head slowly and stared at him. “You… you wouldn’t… you won’t let him in just so you can… save yourself a bullet?”

Koz wanted to brush off the question. Of course he wouldn’t do that. But Jack was terrified. “I promise I won’t. I’m a man of my word Jack, I’ll help you get home.”

Jack let out a shaky sigh and buried his head in his arms. There was a long pause and then he spoke, “Okay.”

True to his word, Koz stood guard at the door. 

A few times the wolf clawed halfheartedly at the door, but between the magical barrier and the deadbolt, it couldn’t get in. Eventually, Koz heard a creak of wood as the beast left the porch. Koz looked outside and met a pair of glowing yellow eyes shining out from the gloom of the trees. 

It wasn’t a full moon. The wolf out there had as much control over the change as Koz did – and he was still relatively newly bitten and weak to the change. 

No full moon meant the wolf was only in its lupine form because it wanted to be. It was endangering others because it wanted to.

Behind him, Jack grumbled in his sleep. Koz looked back at him, the yellow lights of the cabin nearly obnoxiously bright compared to the night outside. Jack was still curled against the cabinets, head in his arms. Koz frowned at how scrawny and vulnerable he looked. Why, he wondered, was a werewolf stalking him?


	2. Unfortunately, Jack is not Tripping Balls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack and Koz set off northward for Claussen. Jack is happy to finally have someone to talk to in his wanderings, but every day has to end and with the night comes the moon and the return of the wolf.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made a lil youtube playlist for your listening pleasure!
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8QoSNJjCt4kaxQtxaefXpe4IxnNU4D6K&feature=mh_lolz
> 
> I'll probably make a nice fancy 8tracks list eventually~

Jack slowly uncurled from his crumpled position and blinked sleepily up at his companion. Koz was riffling through the cabinets and drawers, not being particularly quiet, but then, Jack reminded himself – Koz had stayed up all night being quiet - he knew from the occasional moments when he’d jerked awake, seized with terror. Each time, Koz had been wide-awake and on-guard. 

The few times he noticed Jack stir, he’d whispered softly. “It’s alright, he can’t get in. Go back to sleep.” It was a little creepy how calm the older man was, but it was also a huge relief.

Jack stretched and rolled his neck, wincing at the loud popping noises. “Good morning,” he said, voice hoarse and sleepy.

“Good morning.” Koz replied automatically, still riffling through the drawers. “You haven’t found anything like a weapon around here have you? Knives? Guns?”

“No?” Jack stood up, wondering if he should help look. He was pretty sure he’d checked everywhere in this place trying to find food. He watched in complete confusion as Koz got down on his knees and started running his hands along the seams in the floorboards. Jack shoved his hands in his sweater pocket and bit his lip. Right now was one of those moments where he worried about who the universe had chosen to be his partner in this crazy adventure.

Then Koz lifted away one of the floorboards to reveal a hidden compartment under the floor.

“Whoa,” Jack said, taking a step forward to see what Koz had found. Nothing. The compartment was empty.

“Well that’s a little anti-climactic,” Jack announced.

Koz pounded his fist on the floor and Jack jumped. “There should be something here!” He growled.

“Frankly, I’m still amazed there was even a compartment there but…” Jack’s eyes widened. “Oh, God.” He stared at the man before him. “This is a drug thing, isn’t it? Shit. That’s where the werewolf came from! I just accidentally inhaled something and now I’m tripping balls!”

Koz replaced the beam with a sigh. “Whatever makes you feel comfortable, “ he said. “I don’t suppose you have a cell phone?”

Jack pulled his hands out of his pocket, holding the only thing he had on him: a pocketknife. “And I didn’t even bring this,” he said, “I found it here!” 

Koz sighed.   
“Are you surprised? You have noticed I’m not even wearing shoes, right?”

Koz stood up from the floor and quirked an eyebrow as Jack rocked on his heels. “I have been wondering.”

Jack smiled ruefully. “Good to know.”

Koz looked at him expectantly, Jack pretended not to know what he was waiting for. Finally he spoke. “Are you going to explain?”

Jack shrugged and forced a smile. “Not much to explain, like I said: I got lost.”

“Really?”

The smile faded from Jack’s face. “Are you going to tell me why you’re out here?”

Koz blanched. “No.”

“Then neither am I.” Time for a change of subject. “What about you, do you have a cell phone?”

Koz grit his teeth. “I wasn’t expecting so many complications.” 

Jack remembered yesterday. He’d seen Koz from afar and been so glad to see another human. He hadn’t questioned why he was out there until he caught up to the man in the clearing and found him on his knees with a gun to his head.

“Okay. Yeah.” Jack said nervously. The last thing he wanted was for Koz to realize how much easier it would be to off himself instead of helping Jack not get killed by a werewolf. “So, we’ll have to walk, armed only with your gun and my pocket knife. Sounds good. Let’s get going.”

Koz sighed. “Breakfast first,” he said. “We won’t last long without that.”

*

After eating some of the remaining frozen pies, they set out northward, towards Claussen. Jack was edgy at first, but Koz reassured him, he knew a place between the cabin and the town where they would still be safe from werewolf attack.

It was a foggy, chilly morning. Despite Koz’s reassurances, Jack couldn’t help but look around at every sound to creep through the morning mist. “Do werewolves need moonlight to turn?” He wondered aloud. “They don’t in Teen Wolf.”

“You shouldn’t trust everything you see on television,” Koz said, walking calmly as they strode through a dark grove of fir trees. “They need moonlight, but just a sliver of moonlight will do, cloud cover makes no difference - as long as the moon shines brighter than the sun, they can transform. 

Jack peered around nervously as they made their way past the fir trees. “So we’re safe during the day?”

“So long as he doesn’t decide to come after us as a human.”

Jack stepped on a jagged stone, hopped on one foot for a moment, then hurried to catch up to his companion as he continued on without pause. “But why would he do that? I understand he can’t help it when he’s all wolfy but—”

“He can help it. Werewolves only lose control when the moon is full or very near full. It was barely half full last night.”

“You aren’t full of shit are you?” Jack felt the need to ask. “You aren’t just dismissing my MTV ‘Teen Wolf’ knowledge and then feeding me Michael J. Fox ‘Teen Wolf ‘stuff, right?”

Koz grinned ruefully. “I wish,” he said. “Unfortunately, I’ve had quite a lot of real-world experience with this type of thing.”

“Great.” Jack still wasn’t sure if he trusted Koz or not, but the man seemed to at least think he knew what he was talking about. Also he had a gun, so Jack wasn’t about to argue.

Koz ducked under some low-hanging branches and Jack followed suit. “So if there’s some psycho werewolf out to get me – why are you so sure he won’t attack as a human during the day?” He asked.

“I’m not. However, some werewolves, when they’re in wolf form, feel so strong, they think nothing and no one can stop them from doing whatever they please. When they’re human, however, they feel all too vulnerable. Hopefully, your wolf is one of those.” 

“Insecure werewolves?”

“There are insecure humans, why not insecure werewolves?”

The conversation came to an abrupt end as Koz stopped dead in his tracks and tipped his head, eyes unfocused as he seemed to concentrate on something in the distance. The area seemed a little familiar, Jack thought, but he had surveyed all the forest within a day’s walking distance from the cabin so many times, that that was no surprise.

Jack took a quick moment to check his foot from his earlier mishap, flipping his bangs out of his eyes as the wind blew against his face. He’d confirmed his foot wasn’t bleeding when Koz spoke suddenly.

“You said you found bones?”

“Oh.” Jack looked around. That’s why this place looked familiar. “Yeah. Up… up ahead.”

Koz nodded and started off, heading straight towards the bone pile. Great. 

Jack followed at a distance. He was not in a hurry to get back there again.

Koz waded through a short bramble patch – Jack remembered it because he’d walked through barefoot. This time, he chose to stand outside. He could see the jagged patches of white bone well enough.

Koz walked right up to them, completely unafraid, his hand pressed up against his nose. It did smell, but not as badly as when Jack found them a week ago. He shuddered. From what he could tell, there was a lot less meat on the bones than there had been last week.

Koz knelt down and examined one of the bodies. He reached out and picked something up from the ground, upsetting the undoubtedly human skull so that it twisted towards Jack. He looked away with a gasp and forced himself to breathe deeply. If he threw up he’d be hungry and shaky the rest of the day and he couldn’t be weak - he needed to get home.

That was a thought he would’ve never expected to have. Funny how a little thing like a werewolf attack could put things in perspective.

Another wave of nausea crashed through him and he knelt down into a crouch as the taste of bile hit his tongue. ‘Breathe,’ he told himself. ‘Breathe.’

Koz was there in a moment with a large, warm hand on his back. “Breathe evenly,” he said. “Inhale while counting to seven. Hold it ‘til the count of four. Breathe out for seven.”

Jack couldn’t think well enough to count, but Koz was gently rubbing his hand over his back. It felt nice and Jack forced himself to focus on the sensation until the world stopped feeling like it was turning inside out.

“Those were humans, right?” He asked when he could find his voice.

“Yes.”

Jack swallowed. “Yeah. I thought—” he shuddered. “I thought I’d found some serial killer’s hideout when I first found them.”

“Sure adds weight to your drug ring theory though.”

“But it’s not drugs, is it?”

“No.” Koz stood and offered Jack his hand. Jack took it and the older man pulled him to his feet. “Those men were hunters.” He held up a filthy dog tag. “Acquaintances of mine actually.”

“When you say ‘hunter’ are you talking camouflage and neon orange or… demons and leviathans?”

“Leviathans? Is that Teen Wolf again?”

“Supernatural.” Jack shoved his still-shaking hands into his center pocket. “I busted my leg last year and watched a lot of television, okay?”

Koz shrugged like it didn’t matter. “I’ve never hunted a leviathan, but yes, demon, vampire, werewolf, nasty, ugly, human-eating monster hunters.”

“And you’re one too.”

“Retired. Sort of.” Koz looked thoughtful. “Before you found the cabin – did you see or hear the werewolf?”

Jack shook his head. “Only after I found the cabin. I thought it was such a stroke of luck…” And then came the snarling and the scratching at the door, every night, all hours of the night. Last night was probably the best rest he’d gotten since he got lost.

Koz’s shoulder sagged. “That explains it,” he groaned. “That cabin is a hunter’s cabin. That’s why there was a compartment under the floor, to hide weapons.” He growled. “Which the wolf must’ve cleaned out! He’s after hunters and he must’ve mistook you for one when you used the cabin.” He frowned and looked into the distance. “Are you ready to continue?”

Jack nodded and the two started walking once more. “I’m sorry you got pulled into this,” Jack said.

“You’re sorry?” Koz turned and offered him a humorless smile. “You only got dragged into this because some hunter couldn’t be discreet with his hide-out. Stumbling into a hunt is just part of the job, but you’re a bystander. I apologize to you on behalf of this idiot.” He waved the dog tag.

“I-I thought that was a friend of yours,” Jack said.

“No, an acquaintance - and not a good one either. He was a moron, as further evidenced by the fact that he is now dead.”

Koz seemed to be in a foul mood, so Jack decided now might be a good time to keep quiet.

Of course, that only lasted until he overcame the shock of seeing the skeletons again and fully came to terms with the fact that he was traveling with a real life supernatural hunter. Still, he spent a few minutes silently sneaking glances at his companion. He was a hunter. A real, Winchester-style hunter! Jack felt a little star-struck.

They climbed a steep ridge and found themselves in a small clearing where a cluster of boulders cut off the trees’ growth and allowed a few rays of sunlight to pierce through the tree canopy in thick, golden veins. It was beautiful. It also reminded Jack of a certain movie. “So do vampires sparkle or do they burn up in the sun?”

Koz looked up, surprised by the question. “They sparkle.”

Jack’s jaw dropped. “Really?”

“Yes, the burning flames could be described as sparkly.”

Jack burst out laughing at his companion’s rueful smirk. “So you don’t know Teen Wolf but you know Twilight? Teen Wolf is so much better!”

Koz started climbing from one boulder to the other, Jack scurried to follow his movements, stepping lightly over the hot stone. “I took my daughter to one of the movies,” he said.

Jack nearly lost his footing. “You have a daughter?”

Koz frowned. “Yes.”

“Oh.” They slid down the last of the boulders and Jack relished the feeling of cool dirt under his feet. “What’s her name?”

Koz seemed torn. He was frowning, but he also looked very much like he wanted to talk. “Seraphina.”

“That’s pretty!” Jack said, hoping to lure his companion into conversation.

“She says it’s weird.”

“She should appreciate her uniqueness! ‘Seraphina’ is way better than a basic-ass name like ‘Jack’, let me tell you. There were ten other Jacks in my grade alone! I’ve gone by Jack F. my entire school life and let me tell you it has made for one rude nickname.”

“Oh?”

“Jack-off.”

“Oh.” Koz winced in sympathy. “At least your classmates are creative. Mine just called me a tit and left it at that.”

Jack laughed. Koz was almost smiling and it was kind of cute. He was no Jensen Ackles, but he definitely was much cuter when he was (sort of) smiling. Jack was a little curious what he’d look like when he really smiled whole-heartedly.

“What year are you in, then?” Koz asked.

“I graduate in May.” Jack braced himself for the typical near-graduation interrogation.

“Congratulations.”

“Yeah, well, I might get eaten by a werewolf first.”

“That’s why you have me.”

Jack realized he was right. He owed the universe an apology. It turned out he’d found exactly the right person to go on a werewolf adventure. Thank you, Universe.

“So…” Jack switched topics. “In all your hunting trips, have you ever seen a real alien?”

“Some people believe fairies are aliens,” Koz replied.

“Have you ever seen a fairy?”

“A… colleague of mine rescued a fairy as a child, now it follows her around everywhere. My hunting partner – he’s from Russia – brought a whole pack of elves with him. They clean his house for him and in return he pays them in milk and cookies.”

“Sounds kinda like tiny slave labor.”

Koz laughed. “I thought so too until I met them. They’re absolutely awful at cleaning and seem to spend more time eating and breaking things than anything else. It’s more like he has ten toddlers than servants.” 

If Koz was annoyed at Jack’s constant questions, he didn’t show it. The young man spent the rest of the afternoon playing true or false with all his (largely film-acquired) knowledge of the supernatural, not stopping until afternoon, when they finally took a rest for lunch.

They set out again after a healthy meal of poptarts. Exhaustion and the slowly sinking sun began to take their toll as Jack’s questions gradually slowed down. Occasionally he’d think of a supernatural related query and put it to Koz but as the afternoon slipped into evening, he was too nervous to think of anything but the oncoming night. He couldn’t help but remember what happened the last time he’d tried being outside the cabin at night. He could still remember the beast’s breath bursting against the back of his bare feet, teeth clicking over empty air as the wolf tried and failed to grab hold of him.

“Koz, you’re sure the werewolf won’t be able to catch up to us, right?”

Koz frowned. “Werewolves are incredible hunters; they can run faster than even a real wolf and are among the greatest trackers in both the natural and supernatural worlds. He’ll probably catch up to us within a few hours after sundown. We haven’t exactly been covering our tracks.”

Jack froze in his tracks, trying to force down panic. “What? What was the point in leaving the cabin then?”

“We’d eventually run out of food and starve to death.”

“So we’re going to die out here instead? I don’t really want to die at all, Koz.”

Koz narrowed his eyes at him and his nostrils flared as he took in a deep breath. “We’re not going to die. I’m going to get you home, I promise.”

Jack’s heart sank. He didn’t want to go home.

‘One problem at a time, Jack,’ he reminded himself.

“I know these woods, Jack. Monsters love woods. I’ve spent a lot of time in this forest in particular – albeit, the northern most half – but still, I’ve spent enough time looking at maps of this place to have the locations of safe-zones memorized.” He pointed in the distance. “There’s a druid circle just over that hill. We’ll be safe there.”

“Oh.” Jack felt a little silly. “Well, you could’ve said so! Let’s get going!”

“You sure you don’t want to break for dinner?”

Jack turned around to reply when he saw Koz giving him a rueful smile. “Tit,” Jack said. Koz snorted and lead the way forward.

Now that Jack knew where they were going, he kept looking up at the ridge hopefully, wishing it were nearer as the sun sank further and further in the sky. The wind blew at their back; urging them forward and making the leaves rustle behind them, making Jack jump at every sound. Koz kept close beside him, more so than he had during the whole day. This coupled with the fact that Koz kept glancing over his shoulder only made Jack more nervous - especially since he did it more and more.

“Should I be worried?” Jack finally asked. “You keep looking back…”

Koz looked up at the sky and frowned. Jack didn’t like it when he frowned – frowns generally meant bad things. “We don’t need to worry just yet,” Koz said finally. “I don’t think he’ll do anything until the sun fully sets. Just keep moving. Quickly.”

“Oh, God.” Jack whirled to look behind them, but saw nothing. “He’s behind us?”

“I caught a glimpse of him a little while ago, but he’s kept his distance. He’s made his move earlier than I anticipated.”

“Shit.” Jack looked up at the red sky. He couldn’t even see the sun over the ridge.

“We’ll be alright,” Koz said. “We’ve just lost a little time.”

“How close are we?”

Koz couldn’t hide a wince. “Can you climb a tree?”

“Yes.”

“Can you do it quickly?”

“I’m extremely fast at anything if my life depends on it.”

“Good answer. We might need to climb trees.” He lowered his voice. “But first we’ll try running.”

“Do you think we can lose him?”

“Probably not, but we’ll shorten the distance between us and the druid circle.” He glanced down at Jack’s bare feet. “Can you run?”

“I was on the track team… before I messed up my leg.”

“Like riding a bicycle.” Koz said in what he probably thought was a reassuring voice. “On the count of three. One—”

Jack took a deep breath.

“Two—”

‘Just pretend you’re at a meet,’ he thought. ‘And if you don’t win, you’ll be killed and eaten.’

“Three.”

The two burst forward. 

Jack’s feet stung for all of two seconds as he scrambled over stones and broken twigs, but he quickly lost all feelings of pain to the familiar burn in his legs and chest, drowned out every other half second by the pounding of his heart.

He leapt, swift as a deer, over fallen branches, logs, and roots. He slid for one moment on a patch of bare, damp mud, but recovered, sliding into it like a professional ice skater until his feet found the sharp, spongy-cacophony of the forest floor once more. 

Koz was keeping up with him - which was cool because he’d been sort of scared that one of them, would be slower than the other. If the wolf attacked, he really didn’t want to see or experience the old ‘zombie survival 101’ (run faster than your friends or be eaten).

If only Jack had been a cross-country runner. Or he hadn’t sat out for a year. Or had his leg broken. Already he was tiring and his leg was beginning to ache. ‘Your life depends on this,’ he reminded himself. ‘You can survive physical therapy, you can push through this!’

He heard a crash of breaking tree limbs behind them and an unfamiliar voice swore loudly. Their attacker had quite the potty mouth. Jack was so giddy with adrenaline, he would’ve laughed if he weren’t gasping for breath.

They came over the top of the ridge just in time to see the last golden sliver of sun sink below the horizon. Behind them, Jack heard another crash and a loud, high yelp of pain. 

‘Maybe he fell and hurt himself,’ Jack thought hopefully – but all positive thinking abandoned him as an agonized scream split the air. Jack swallowed back panic as the cry twisted in on itself, turning to a tremendous groan and then a snarl. The sound grew more and more distant, but that did little to reassure him.

“We’re almost there!” Koz said.

The snarling stopped and for a moment the woods were eerily quiet but for the sound of their heavy breathing and the underbrush crunching as they tore past. Then came a terrible crashing behind them and the sound of deep, doggish panting coming closer and closer.

“Oh God!” Jack gasped, pressing a hand over the stitch in his side as terror seized him. He tripped over a tree root and swore breathlessly.

Koz grabbed his hand, nearly yanking his arm out of his socket as he pulled forward, stumbling as he tried to regain traction. “Keep going!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So my beta reader brought up a question you may also be wondering, but it didn't seem important enough for me to jam it in: Her question was how Koz had a map memorized of the forest but didn't know about the cabin.
> 
> Koz knows about the location of the druid circle (and other safe-zones in the forest) because the hunters in this au are not like the hunters in the Supernatural verse - they actually communicate! Safe-zones are common knowledge in the hunting community. However, there are a few people who don't share information, for whatever reason or another, the cabin owner is one such person. He bothered marking his cabin as a hunter's but didn't really tell anybody it was there.


	3. Good Camping Trips Always Have S'Mores

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All Koz wanted to do was get Jack home safely, but every turn they make seems to lead to bloodshed. Is it too much to ask for the universe to throw them an ally in this crazy werewolf adventure?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After I told my tumbub followers that I was going to start updating faster, I ended up updating late because I wanted to post the 8track mix I made for this fic. But I couldn't post the 8track mix until I got the cover art done and I can't get the cover art done because the one thing I've absorbed from the color palette meme going around tumblr is that there is this little thing called color harmony and my cover art does not have it!
> 
> Maybe by next chapter I'll have gotten that done.

In hindsight, Koz should’ve made Jack climb a tree as soon as he felt the familiar prickling along the back of his neck, signifying the moon rising, but the druid circle would have been much safer than a flimsy tree branch. He’d resolved that if push came to shove he’d stop and fight the wolf and let Jack keep going. 

When he heard the wolf’s breath growing close behind him and he realized that now might be a good time to implement that plan.

“Keep going.” He squeezed Jack’s hand and let go. “Look for a circle of trees.” They’d yet to reach the top of the hill, the circle was just beyond the rise.

“What?” Jack gasped. “There’s a million trees!” The scent of fear filled Koz’s senses.

“These will be in a perfect circle!” Koz said, “It’s straight ahead, if you don’t find it immediately, climb a tree and go as high as you can!” Koz pulled his gun. “No matter what you hear, stay where it’s safe. Claussen is north of here, wait until morning before moving.”

“Koz—” Jack gasped through his words. “Don’t die!”

“I won’t!”

“I mean, don’t let it kill you!”

“I promise I’ll get you home!” Koz stopped suddenly and pivoted on his heel. The wolf charged towards him, nothing more than a blur of movement, glowing teeth, and shining fangs. 

Instantly, the uncertainty of Koz’s condition, his fear for Jack’s safety, the ache of homesickness that had grown in him steadily since yesterday - they all slipped away, replaced by the cold, professionalism he’d honed over years of seeing and doing things others only saw and did in their nightmares. He was a hunter and the hunt was on. 

The wolf skidded to a halt, not expecting his prey to try facing him. Two unnaturally green eyes landed on Koz’s gun and the beast jerked to the side as he pulled the trigger and fired.

The wolf yelped and blood spattered across the forest’s lush greenery. The beast disappeared into the brush. Koz cursed and turned around to run after Jack. The shot was good, but not good enough. He’d definitely missed a kill shot, but Jack’s safety took priority over finishing the hunt.

Jack hadn’t gotten too far ahead. Koz followed the lingering scent-trail of fear until he heard movement behind him. Damn. He must’ve only grazed the wolf. With the wind blowing towards him, he couldn’t catch its scent and tell where it was or how much it was bleeding.

He could feel that familiar ache at the base of his neck urging him to change. He clenched his gun in his hand and urged the feeling away. He didn’t need to turn - he had a weapon. He whirled around and took aim – he only had so many bullets after all – but before he could get off a shot, a two-hundred pound wolf barreled into his chest.

All the wind was knocked out of him as the beast tackled him to the ground. Koz’s pack was trapped beneath him and his back bent uncomfortably around the bag amongst a torrent of confused panic.

‘Can’tbreatheWOLFdanger.’ 

Without realizing, the ache in his neck burst into a burning pain and then all Koz could think was: ‘Pinned. Vulnerable. Bad. Bad. BAD.’

He flailed, gasped for breath, and snarled on the exhale. He planted one hand into the dirt and braced himself as he grabbed the wolf’s neck in a clawed hand and squeezed, claws sinking into its pelt. The wolf lunged forward to strike at his throat, spittle flying as its jaws snapped just above Koz’s face. He grabbed for the loose skin beneath its jaw and forced its head back. Before the wolf could pull free, he kicked upward into its stomach hard, forcing the beast over his head. The werewolf let out a surprised yelp as it was thrown into the bushes behind them.

Koz growled, fangs bared as he rose into a crouch.

The werewolf wheezed and pulled away from the brambles, startled by the turn of events. Koz braced himself, close to the ground with claws exposed, his body trembling with the desire to let loose and change – but he couldn’t – not enough time – danger! Fight! He charged, shoes slipping off as his feet warped into paws.

He tackled the beast, arms wrapping around its neck and squeezing as his teeth found flesh and clamped down. It wasn’t enough - he hadn’t changed enough! He needed his snout, his powerful jaws, his long fangs! Every instinct screamed at him: Fight! Kill! Fight! Protect Jack! Protect—

Jack!

His eyes widened as human consciousness returned. Instantly he felt his clothes – which had seemed so constricting a moment ago – begin to loosen. His teeth shrank and he pulled his mouth away from the beast’s neck and spat out fur. The wolf struggled against him and he adjusted his hold from a simple grip to a pressure hold. 

Instantly the wolf’s flailing increased. Koz just squeezed harder and ignored the claws scraping his front and the click of teeth by his ear as the wolf tried to twist and bite him.

In a detached sort of way, he counted to seven, waiting as his hold cut off the wolf’s blood-flow and the beast slowly fell unconscious.

He waited an extra moment, just to make sure it wasn’t playing possum, then he let go. The wolf fell to the ground heavily and lay still. Koz’s arms ached and he stretched as he went to retrieve his shoes.

He was shaking as he slipped his shoes back on his – thankfully human – feet. It wasn’t his first time bodily attacking a monster – not by a long shot – but it was the first time he’d done it while changing.

He spat on the ground and pulled a few stray hairs from his mouth, grimacing in disgust. At least, he thought, at least he hadn’t changed all the way. If he had, he was sure he would’ve broken skin – he might’ve even been able to break the wolf’s neck with only his teeth. He’d never tried it before – he’d never killed anything while he was changed, thank God – but with the change came a certain knowledge, a surety that he was a powerful killer. Koz looked back at the wolf on the ground. It hadn’t even been much of a fighter.

Koz let out a heavy breath and ran a shaky hand through his hair. He thought bemusedly that if he’d changed all the way, he’d have torn through his clothes. What a sight for poor Jack to see tomorrow morning – him covered in blood and stark naked!

He took a moment to search for his gun. He didn’t even remember dropping it.

He walked back towards the wolf’s unconscious form and with a practiced stoicism, shot it through the head.

He was about to turn around to go find Jack when he realized that something was off. He knelt and shifted the wolf’s body. Nothing. He reached beneath and flipped the whole thing over. Still nothing. Except for the hole in either side of the beast’s head, there wasn’t a mark on the thing. He’d definitely shot a wolf though. He’d seen the blood. He’d smelled it!

“Shit.” There was a second wolf. Koz looked around and sniffed the air, hoping maybe it would be close by and downwind, but nothing could be that easy. At least he’d wounded it. He sighed. He should’ve considered the likelihood of a pack – werewolves, like real wolves, were social creatures. Not to mention this wolf had been going after hunters and hunters usually worked in twos or threes. It would be better to attack them in groups.

He frowned and pushed his musings aside. There was another wolf out there and Jack was all alone.

He hurried towards the druid circle, hoping Jack had found it. He kept his eyes peeled for the second wolf as he went. Night-vision was almost definitely the greatest benefit to being a werewolf, he thought as he made his way through the gloomy forest.

He found the circle easily. There was a lingering scent of fear and something else – something that he’d come to know as Jack’s scent. The young man had been there, but he was nowhere to be seen. 

“Jack?” He called. Just as Koz started to worry he heard a quiet voice call down from up in the trees.

“Koz?”

Koz turned around and saw just one pale foot between the branches above him.

“Jack,” he called softly. “You can come down, this is the circle.”

The branches rustled as Jack began his descent. “I thought it was,” he said, “but I thought, y’know, just in case—”

There was a snap and Jack yelped as he plummeted downward, bouncing off lower branches painfully. Koz darted forward and caught him easily. There was a quiet moment where Koz realized with a jolt just how thin Jack really was, then Jack spoke.

“So, is there any chance you’re related to Superman?”

Koz forced out a chuckle as he gently tipped Jack onto his feet. “Not that I’m aware of.”

Jack shoved his hands in his center pocket and took a few nervous steps back, biting his lip. He glanced down at Koz’s gun – still in his hand. “Did you…” He trailed off.

Koz frowned and holstered his weapon. “That’s sort of a good news, bad news situation.”

Jack groaned. “What’s the good news?”

“We’re down one werewolf.”

“I don’t like the way you phrased that.”

“That’ll be because of the bad news: there’s definitely at least one more out there.”

“At least one!” Jack let out a slightly hysterical laugh then glanced around at the circle. “You’re sure we’ll be safe here?”

“Yes. Nothing may enter a druid circle so long as it intends harm towards one already in the circle.”

“Oh, well.” Jack’s shoulders sagged. “That’s good.”

“Yes, it is.” Koz sat down heavily and leaned against the tree with a groan. Now the adrenaline was wearing off, he was beginning to feel the affects of changing and fighting a werewolf.

“Are you okay?”

“Fine. Hungry though.” Koz shrugged off his pack. He was not fine, he was exhausted and sore and absolutely famished. He pulled a smashed up package of poptarts from his bag. He could’ve eaten the foil; he was so hungry. He always got hungry after changing, even if he only changed a little bit. Apparently switching species built up quite the appetite.

‘Although,’ he mused as he wolfed down the crumbled contents of the package, another benefit to changing was the healing factor. His arms were sore but his chest didn’t hurt – despite the fact that a large animal had tackled and pinned him down. By all rights he should have had at least bruised – if not broken – ribs, but he felt fine.

The incessant hunger he could do without. It took an enormous amount of self-control not to tear through their supplies and eat all of them. He settled for drinking some water and then snuggled in against the tree. It wasn’t particularly warm, but it made for better shelter against the rapidly cooling night air.

Beside him, Jack slowly picked at his own dinner. It was a good thing it was so dark, Koz thought, or Jack would be able to see him watching him eat with all the pathetic attentiveness of a hungry dog.

Jack finished his meal and leaned against the tree as well, settling against Koz’s side. Koz wrapped his arm around him. “Cold?”

Jack shivered and pressed closer. “I’m ready to sleep in a bed again,” he said.

“Good news then: we should reach Claussen before sundown tomorrow.”

“And I can take a shower.” Jack winced. “Sorry if I smell bad.”

“I just wrestled a werewolf,” Koz said sleepily. “You smell fine.”

Jack pulled away and stared at him, mouth open. “You wrestled with it?”

“I dropped my gun.” Kozmotis yawned.

Jack stared at him. “How are you not dead?”

“Apparently I must be related to Superman.”

Jack let out an incredulous laugh. “You’re kind of amazing,” he said.

“You’re nothing to sniff at either.” Koz deflected. “You’re handling yourself remarkably well.”

“Come say that to me again after we get home and I’m in therapy,” Jack said as he settled back against Koz’s side.

“I’ve been to therapy, it does not diminish your bravery to spend time healing after something traumatic.” Koz wrapped his arm around Jack, mostly to warm up the starving child, but a little to reassure him as well.

Jack was quiet a moment. “Um…” Koz could smell his anxiety growing. “Have you been recently?”

For a moment Koz was confused. What did he mean? Then he remembered. ‘Right,’ he thought, ‘I tried to kill myself.’ Koz sighed. “I told you my problems can’t be solved by talking it out.”

“But could your problems be… um… less awful if you talked about them? Like when I was freaking out about the – the bones. You helped me – even though they were still there, I wasn’t freaking out about them.”

Koz frowned. “I’m glad that I helped you, but my problem isn’t so simple.”

Jack let out shaky breath. “I wish I could convince you not to go through with it…”

“You hardly know me,” Koz said quietly.

“I know you’re helping me when you don’t need to so you’re at least a good person. And you took your daughter to a Twilight movie so you’ve gotta be a really awesome dad.” There was a quiet pause. “What’s going to happen to her?”

“She’s going to stay with my friend,” Koz said sharply. Jack didn’t sound judgmental – but he was certainly trying to guilt him into not carrying through with his plan. “I’d appreciate it if you stopped asking me about it. I haven’t been asking your reasons for being out here.”

Jack let out another shaky sigh. “That’s… that’s another problem that can’t be solved by talking about it.”

Koz would be lying if he said his curiosity wasn’t piqued, but he really didn’t want Jack to ask him about his own situation, so he might as well lead by example.

Jack shivered and moved to cover his feet with his hands. Koz frowned and shifted, slipping off his shoes. 

“Here.” He pushed them towards Jack.

“You sure?”

“Go on.”

“Thanks.” Jack slipped on the shoes and Koz almost smiled; his shoes looked like clown shoes on Jack’s small feet. Jack sighed in contentment. “Warm toes…” he murmured blissfully. 

Koz did smile then. “You’re welcome, Jack.”

Jack snuggled against him. “You’re a really awesome werewolf adventure partner,” he said sleepily. “Sorry for um… for being nosy.”

“I’d do the same in your position,” Koz said. “Just… stop trying to help me. Chances are good it’ll end badly for you.”

Jack sighed unhappily. “You’re just making me more curious.”

“Good night, Jack.”

“Good night, Koz.”

*  
Koz woke up hungrier than he was when he went to sleep. He used the can-opener he’d taken from the cabin and opened one of the cans of chilly while Jack came around.

Jack rubbed his eyes sleepily. “Do you need a spoon?” He yawned.

“We don’t have any.”

“We have pocket knife spoon!” Jack proudly produced the pocket-knife he’d taken from the cabin and flipped out a tiny spoon.

“Handy,” Koz said, accepting the utensil. “Did you want any?” He sincerely hoped not. He was ready to eat the tin can.

“I think I’ll eat the last poptart.”

Good. Koz scarfed down the entire can (and managed to avoid eating the tin) and felt a little bit better.

“Alright,” he said once Jack had finished his breakfast. “Ready to go home?”

Jack smiled and Koz was surprised to see that it was slightly strained. “Of course!” Jack slipped off Koz’s shoes. “Thanks for these.”

“You can keep them if you like,” Koz said.

“After all this time, my feet are basically two big callouses,” Jack said. “Don’t worry about it. Besides…” he looked down at Koz’s socked feet. “You might step in something wet and wet socks are a fate worse than death.”

Koz let out wry snort and let Jack return the shoes. At least the kid hadn’t lost his sense of humor.

They set out again, heading ever northward towards Claussen. They spent a good portion of the morning moving steadily, then the wind shifted and Koz caught a scent on the breeze; thankfully it was a smell he knew well from even before the bite.

It isn’t long until they arrive at the source. A small, clear grove of trees, each with its trunk covered in purple-blue bottle-rocket flowers. Wolfsbane. A lot of wolfsbane. ‘Well,’ Koz thought, ‘this is near a hunter’s cabin.’ He was almost surprised they didn’t have a wolfsbane garden – North did, which was why Koz was so familiar with the scent. 

“What’s up?” Jack asked, seeing Koz’s focus.

“That’s wolfsbane.” Koz pointed.

Jack whirled. “Really?” He said, “no way!” He stepped towards the plant and Koz remembered his companion’s bare feet.

“Stay back,” he said. “It’s poisonous, even to touch.”

Jack looked up at him sharply. “Isn’t it only poisonous to werewolves?”

“It has magic properties which make it especially poisonous to werewolves, but it’s still extremely poisonous to humans too.”

“What?” Jack frowned. “You got to be kidding me, I feel so betrayed!”

“Is it not poisonous in Teen Wolf?”

“It isn’t!” Jack either didn’t detect Koz’s sarcasm or didn’t bother to address it. “My life is a lie!”

“Just watch where you step,” Koz said, turning his head as the wind blew another familiar scent towards him. “The roots are especially poisonous – you don’t want to be sick all day.” His thoughts trailed away from Jack as the new scent picked up. Smoke. And food.

Suddenly it felt as if he hadn’t eaten anything that morning. He sniffed the air. He knew this smell.

North had a fire-pit in his backyard. The original intent behind it was for burning items (or other things) for hunting purposes – whether it was a witch spell or a possessed object, it was good to have an inconspicuous way to destroy them. But then Koz had introduced North to Seraphina and suddenly the fire-pit became a place for s’mores and roasting sausages.

So of course, Koz recognized the smell of hot dogs cooking over an open flame immediately and felt his stomach growl in response.

He could see a feint trail of black smoke just over the next hill.

“Jack, we may have caught some good luck,” he announced.

“What?”

“There might be a campsite down there. We can borrow a phone or ask for a ride.” ‘Or lunch,’ Koz thought as he turned towards his companion just in time to see him shove his hands in his center pocket, face far too innocent to be trusted. “What did you do?”

“Nothing.”

“Did you touch any of the flowers?”

“Nope.” Jack smiled and it was so impossibly innocent there was no way he wasn’t up to something.

Koz sighed and rolled his eyes. “I’ll know soon enough if you did. When you start throwing up, don’t come crying to me.”

“Deal. Now what’s this about a campsite?”

*

Shortly after they set out for the camp, Koz realized that it might be a trap – but then he started feeling shaky with hunger and decided that the potential benefits outweighed the risk.

And there was at least one risk that soon became apparent. The closer they got, the stronger the smell of smoke became. What had previously been an obnoxious odor soon overpowered his sense of smell entirely. It felt similar to the numb-but-still-aching sensation from burning the roof of your mouth, but it was inside Koz’s nose. Each inhale brought a soft flicker of pain until Koz was finally reduced to mouth-breathing.

They made their way up the hill towards the camp, close enough that even Jack was catching the scent of food and smoke on the wind.

The pair broke through the tree line and found themselves in a clearing at the summit. A battered old pick-up truck with a blue tarp tied over the back sputtered noisily, the engine still running. Two tents framed a patch of cleared earth where a fire pit had been dug and a fire cracked merrily.

A man crouched next to the flames, adjusting one of several spits around the fire, each holding a sizzling hot dog. The man wore a camouflage jacket and pants and an orange cap. Everything screamed hunter – deer, not demon – and Koz relaxed a fraction.

It was all Koz could do to resist running over and digging in – but if the man wasn’t the second wolf, he’d probably be terrified if two raggedy strangers suddenly appeared in the middle of the woods.

“Dad?”

Koz jerked out of his musings as a boy – eighteen or so, not much younger than Jack – walked out from behind the man’s pick-up truck, wearing an over-sized orange hunting vest and carrying a bag of hot-dog buns. He’d spotted Jack and Koz before his father did and judging by the frightened look on his face, Koz was right in assuming their sudden appearance would be treated with fear.

“Hello,” he said, turning on the charm and making his accent as posh as he could manage – he’d found that somehow it was very disarming. “So sorry to intrude, but I’m afraid we’ve got ourselves a bit turned around. Could you perhaps loan us your cell for a moment?”

The man looked towards his son and back to Koz, concern and confusion etched on his face.

Koz glanced towards Jack. Barefoot, dirty, and thin, he must’ve looked quite the sight. Then Koz looked down at himself. He hadn’t realized how dirty he’d gotten when he tussled with the wolf- and there was a sizeable rip in his shirt where the beast had clawed him – how had he not noticed that? They both looked awful.

The father frowned at them for a moment. “How about some lunch?” He said finally, eyeing Jack. “You look like you need it.”

“Oh, yes,” Koz said in a sickeningly chipper voice. “That would be splendid, thank you.”

“Jamie,” the man said. “Grab us some more dogs, alright?”

The boy, Jamie, nodded and hoped back into the back seat of the truck. After a moment the windows rolled down and the engine cut off. Jamie emerged with a cooler under one arm and the bag of buns in the other. He kicked the door shut behind him just as the man stepped forward and took Koz’s hand. “Aaron Bennet,” he introduced himself. “And this is my son, Jamie.”

Jamie looked up with a weak smile and offered a little wave, then returned to his work, pulling the cooked hotdogs onto the buns and putting the fresh ones on to cook.

For a moment the other three could only stand and watch in silent, hungry fascination while Jamie divided the food onto four paper plates.

Koz remembered his manners suddenly. “Sorry,” he said.

Aaron just smiled. “It’s alright. Let’s eat, then we can talk.”

Koz couldn’t agree more. They all sat in the dirt and ate. Koz had never been a big fan of hotdogs, but this particular meal – eaten with his hands off paper plates while sitting in the dirt – was quite possibly one of the best he’d ever eaten. He scarfed down two and then two more once the second batch was done. Then he ate another one when Jack got full and offered him his. Koz could’ve kissed him.

Aaron wiped his mouth with his sleeve and sighed in content. “Hits the spot, huh Jamie?”

“Yup!” Jamie smiled, folding up his plate. He spotted Jack looking for a place to put his own plate and held out his hand. “We’ve got a trash bag in the car,” he said.

They all turned over their plates and Jamie took them and the cooler back to the truck.

There was an awkward moment where the three sat in silence and then Aaron spoke. “So, what brings you out into the woods, mister…?”

“Kozmotis. And this is my—” No one would believe Jack was his son, he didn’t want to deal with any hassle that may arise if he said they were boyfriends (especially since they weren’t), and anything else he could think of seemed too suspicious. “—step-son. Jack.”

Aaron nodded and seemed to search for something to say. “Interesting name.”

“It’s Norwegian,” Koz said mechanically.

“Interesting.” Aaron replied with equal obligatory politeness.

Jamie reappeared from the truck, a bag in his hand. He smiled a soft, hopeful smile and held up the bag. “Any one want s’mores?”

Jack’s hand shot up in the air.

“I thought you were full,” Koz said.

“But s’mores!”

Aaron smiled, but it seemed strained. “I think s’mores will have to wait, buddy,” he said. “Why don’t you go get us some firewood while Mr. Cosmo here—” There was a snort next to Koz, but when he turned to look, Jack’s face was completely neutral. “—makes a phone call.”

“Oh.” Jamie’s face fell. “Okay.” He returned the bag to the car and headed towards the tree line.

“Let’s do s’mores when you get back!” Jack called after him.

Jamie gave him a strained smile and waved before he disappeared into the woods.

Aaron clapped his hands on his knees. “Well,” he said, “let’s see about that phone, hm?”

He stood and headed towards the truck. As he bent over the front seat, the wind shifted and blew just hard enough to clear the smoke from the campsite. For a moment, Koz had some sweet relief from the oppressive scent.

In that moment, as the smell of smoke and food was blown away, the stench of wolf flashed through Koz’s senses like a knife. He stood up so quickly, Jack jumped.

“Koz?”

“Jack, run!”

“What?” Jack hesitated.

Aaron ran around the truck door, rifle cocked. Koz whipped out his own weapon – too late.

“Don’t move!” Aaron said. “No running and no guns.” He pointed squarely at Koz’s chest. Koz doubted the weapon was loaded with silver bullets - they were too expensive and hard to come by if you were only hunting human prey. But still, getting shot by anything would hurt like hell, and while he was incapacitated, Jack would be in danger.

Aaron slowly stepped forward.

"Holy shit," Jack said, "he's the werewolf?"

"Not too bright are you, boy?" Aaron said humorlessly.

"Well, you could just be some human psycho, how would I know?" Jack took a hesitant step back and Aaron snarled at him.

"Don't move!" He adjusts his grip on his gun and swallowed. "I'll shoot your old man if you run."

Jack froze and looked towards Koz, eyes wide.

"It'll be fine, Jack," Koz said. Aaron edged ever closer. Koz was quite sure he intended to disarm him - otherwise he'd have shot from a distance - and if he intended to disarm him, then he wasn't planning on killing him right away. Aaron adjust his grip again and as he stepped forward, Koz realized he could smell the man's fear. He smiled. "You're not going to shoot us," he said.

"Don't bet on that!" Aaron said.

"You would have done it already."

"I still might!"

"No, you won't. You're not a killer, I can tell."

"I killed that other hunter!" Aaron snarled, his eyes wide and wild.

"As a wolf. I saw the bite marks." Koz sneered. "You could only kill him as a wolf - that's why you've never attacked in daylight. When you're human, suddenly you have a conscience again and you remember that it's wrong to hurt people. It's so much easier to kill when you're an animal."

"As far as I'm concerned, humans are the animals!" Aaron snarled. "My wife tried to take my children away from me when I got the bite! Just because I was different! And last night you killed my brother for no reason!"

"Your brother?” Koz quirked an eyebrow, tone changing completely from the polite, disarming act he’d put on before. “You mean that wolf that tried to kill me last night?"

"Don't act innocent. You're a hunter! You would have killed him anyway!"

"I wouldn't have known he existed if he weren't running around the woods, trying to hurt people."

Aaron took another step forward. Clearly he wasn't much of a tactician. Just a little closer and Koz would be able to disarm him,

Aaron growled. "Shut up! I don't care why. He's dead and it's your fault!" His whole body tense suddenly and Koz knew he was about to be shot.

A lot happened in that next moment.

Koz jerked back while Jack darted forward. There was a scream of pain and the gun went off, buck shot whizzing past Koz's shoulder as Aaron fell to the ground.

Koz stared in shock at Jack, still holding his pocket-knife - now stained with blood. His blue eyes were wide as he looked down at Aaron.

Aaron writhed on the ground, mouth foaming as blood fizzled from a wound in his side. The way the blood bubbled was not unfamiliar to Koz.

"I thought you said you didn't touch any of the wolfsbane?" Koz said.

"Technically I didn't." Jack looked at him, then jerked his head back down to watch Aaron squirm. "I just..." He muttered. "Jammed the knife into one of the roots." He swallowed hard and fell silent.

Aaron let out a pained whine and Jack stumbled back, dropping his knife.

"Jack," Koz said gently, "it's alright Jack, he was going to kill us. You just saved my life."

“But— but what about Jamie?”

Koz frowned. “Chances are good he’s a wolf too. Werewolves often target their own kin when they lose control. It’s a pack-forming instinct; they go for those most familiar to them first.”

Jack looked queasy.

“I… I want to go home.”

“We’ll take the car,” Koz said, drawing his weapon.

Jack started. “Wait, no! You’re not going to kill him, are you?”

“Honestly, I can’t think of a reason not to.”

“Please, Koz he’s already down. He’s not even all wolfy now!”

“I shot him last night Jack and he’s already better. He’ll probably recover from this soon enough and then he’ll be after us again. He’s not limited to the forest, Jack. He can track you all the way to your house and…” Koz swallowed, his throat suddenly dry. “You don’t want a werewolf coming to your house, Jack. I can’t always be around to protect you.”

Jack sucked in a sharp breath of air and ran his hands through his hair. He took a step back. “This is so messed up,” he moaned.

“Get in the car, Jack,” Koz said. “Cover your ears and close your eyes.”

“That won’t make it better!” Jack shouted.

“I’m sorry,” Koz said – and he meant it. He’d always tried to keep Seraphina away from his hunting life because of this very reason. Hunting was an awful, messy job. There was a reason Koz had gone to a therapist. Maybe he’d give Jack her phone number. Lord knew, Jack would probably need it after this ordeal.

Jack was staring down at Aaron again, his face paler than usual. Koz holstered his gun and walked towards him. He put an arm around the boy’s shoulder, ignoring when Jack jumped at his touch. 

“Come on,” he murmured as he led Jack to the truck and helped him into the seat. He reached across Jack’s lap and turned the key in the ignition. Instantly, the AC blasted to life. Koz left it on; it would help drown out any outside noises. 

“Cover your ears and don’t watch.” He instructed. 

Jack clamped his hands over his ears and squeezed his eyes shut, his whole body shaking.

Koz reached over and turned the radio on as loud as it would go. He closed the door and approached Aaron’s heaving body.

He’d have to do something about Jamie. It was looking like his suicide plan was scrubbed. After he got Jack home, he’d have to call in North and Bunny to help him scour the woods. At least he had a legitimate excuse for why he’d been gone for so long. Of course that wouldn’t stop North from being angry with him.

Koz sighed and found himself standing before Aaron’s shaking form. ‘End this,’ he told himself, ‘end this hunt as quickly as you can and then end yourself.’

Koz took a deep breath, raised his gun, and fired. Instantly, Aaron’s writhing stopped.

Koz turned around just in time to see Jack throw himself out of the car onto the ground, where he proceeded to vomit up the entirety of his lunch. He was still heaving when Koz came up behind him, laying a gentle hand on the young man’s back and rubbing soft circles.

Jack wiped tears from his eyes. “I-I thought you said…” He swallowed hard. “…Not to come crying to you if I started throwing up?”

“I lied,” Koz said. “You can cry to me all you like.”

He helped Jack stand and get back in the car. He walked around the front and entered the driver’s seat, slinging his pack into the back seat. He was glad to see that Jack’s eyes had remained fixated on his hands in his lap instead of on Aaron’s body.

Koz turned down the music and AC, put the truck in gear, and drove away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *throws violence at you*
> 
> Fun fact: Originally, I had planned for the werewolfs to be OCs and they were all gonna get themselves killed by Koz in this chapter. Then I remembered Jamie. Lucky you, Jamie, you canonical character you! You get to live.


	4. Don't Hold Your Breath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack is still reeling in the aftermath of Aaron Bennett's death and the part he played in it. He feels almost safe, but antsy, waiting for the other shoe to drop. The one thing he knows for certain is that they aren't out of the woods yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sleepy help
> 
> I still don't have that 8track playlist for you. Maybe next time.

Jack wished that Koz had left the music on. Neither of them was talking and in the silence, he kept hearing that gunshot echoing over and over. The AC and the music had dulled the sound to some extent, but he’d certainly still heard it, loud as a thunderclap.

He shuddered and looked out the window, trying to distract himself from his thoughts. The sky was turning a pale pink and orange as the sun slowly sank. It was strange that he didn’t need to fear this. Safety felt foreign. He didn’t like it. He felt antsy, like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The woods passed slowly by. There wasn’t a road this far out in the woods so Koz was driving the truck along a faintly worn path. The way was winding, going around trees and rocky outcrops – even driving across shallow creeks. It was slow going with lots of bumps and turns. Still, there was very little to see.

Jack glanced back towards his companion. Koz was completely focused on the road, so he didn’t see his gaze. Jack was impressed with his companion’s skill, but also terrified. Koz had killed someone. He found himself half disturbed at how little Koz seemed to mind and half jealous that he couldn’t be that brave. He was horrified by the part he’d played in Aaron’s death. He shouldn’t be right? Or should he? Aaron was going to kill him. Didn’t that make it okay?

No. Never. It was never okay to hurt people. 

Maybe that made him weak. He didn’t know.

Jack’s thoughts chased themselves around and around until he thought he might be sick.

He started suddenly. Koz had just asked him something, but he’d been too distracted to hear. “What?”

“Sorry,” Koz said. “I was making a poor attempt at conversation. I asked what you were going to do once you got home.”

“Oh,” Jack said. Home seemed like some distant, fantasy world right now. He struggled to pull it back into focus.

“I’ll probably get my ass handed to me.” He looked out the window, not really focusing on anything, before he realized what he’d said. “I mean—” He backtracked. “My parents are probably so worried. I’m going to be grounded forever.” He would be a lot more than grounded if his parents had actually called the police.

He glanced at Koz. “Or do you mean, what am I going to say to explain myself?”

“I am rather curious about that.” Koz admitted.

Jack wrapped his arms around himself. He didn’t want to talk right now, but he also didn’t want to sit in silence anymore. “Maybe I could say I was in a fugue state.”

“Like in Breaking Bad?”

Jack cracked a weak smile at that. “And Teen Wolf.”

Koz let out a soft breath of laughter. “Fugue states can be a little tricky,” he said. “You could end up in a hospital on accident.”

Jack licked his lips and tried to gather his thoughts. It felt good to focus on other things. “So I got lost in the woods, wandered until I found a cabin—”

“No,” Koz cut him off. “Someone might look for the cabin and find the bone pile. That will lead to all sorts of nasty questions.”

“O-oh…” Jack swallowed. He searched for some new idea, but his thoughts were too scattered. “I don’t think I could sell that I survived just by wandering around.”

“No. You were right the first time, say it was a fugue state – but don’t actually call it that until a doctor tells you that’s what it was. Play a confused, frightened kid. Say you don’t remember much after… whatever it was happened that made you run in here with no shoes on. The first thing you remember was walking along the road side, where a good Samaritan – not me – gave you a ride home.”

“Not you?”

“Undoubtedly this will end up on the news and I prefer not to draw attention to myself,” Koz said.

“Oh. Okay.” Jack looked out the window as the truck slowly made its way through the forest. It almost might have been faster to walk, but the air-conditioning was a welcome relief and Jack’s leg could use the rest – it’d been bothering him for a long time now. 

He realized as Koz maneuvered through the trees along the faint trail, that the Bennett’s must have left the track. They were obviously very well stocked on food; they must have been coming and going in and out of the forest.

Jack thought darkly about all the nights he’d spent terrified for his life, eating only stale junk food in the cabin while the Bennett family had a happy little camping trip while they tried to kill him.

For one moment he felt a flare of vindictiveness as he thought that Aaron and his brother deserved what they got – but then he remembered Jamie’s face when he’d emerged from the truck with the bag of supplies and asked to make s’mores and he could only feel a pressing guilt. He’d helped kill that kid’s family.

Jack sank into the seat, feeling simultaneously nauseous and hungry. Maybe some of the graham crackers would help. He peered into the truck’s backseat.

Koz’s pack was on the floor where he’d slung it, but Jack didn’t feel like he could handle any of the foods in there. The backseat was covered in junk – Jack didn’t know what - a plaid blanket was thrown across the seat with the trash bag thrown across one side and the grocery bag of s’mores stuffs in the middle. Jack reached back and jumped when something beneath the blanket moved.

“Koz!” He whirled around. “There’s something in the back seat!”

Hands grabbed his head and Jack was roughly yanked back against his seat. Fingers dug into his jaw and scalp as his head was jerked to the side. Jack’s neck wrenched hard and he let out a surprised gasp. Blinking back pained tears as he saw the blur of trees outside the window.

“Stop the car!” A girl shouted.

Koz cursed and slammed on the breaks. He drew his gun as the hands twisted again. Jack let out a gargled cry and flailed, head now twisted up towards the ceiling. She was going to break his neck!

Suddenly he was released as the girl tore out of the car. He gasped for breath, putting both hands to his sore neck. He glanced over in time to see the girl race behind a tree - but not before he saw the shotgun in her hand.

“Oh,” he croaked. He jumped as a hand grabbed the back of his neck and forced his head down. He had a brief moment of mindless panic before the pulsing blackness at the edge of his vision was blown away by an enormous crack. The passenger window shattered next to him. Jack winced away and saw Koz also hunched over.

There was another crack and Jack yelled in alarm as the windshield shattered and sent shards of glass raining down on them.

Koz kicked open the door on his side, gun trained over Jack’s head. He reached out with his left hand, grabbed Jack’s hood, and hauled him over the centerpiece and out of the truck.

“Stay low!” Koz ordered.

Jack didn’t need to be told twice.

Koz peered over the hood of the truck and ducked just as pellets ricocheted off the hood. He swore. “Of course, she’s got extra ammunition!” He snuck past where Jack was crouched and carefully rose up to peer through the backseat windows.

There was a moment of achingly long silence.

“Where is she?”

“She knows she’ll have to reload after this, so she’s waiting for a clear shot,” Koz said. “She’s got a bandage on her shoulder – apparently she was the one I shot last night.”

Jack looked up at the reddening sky. “So… she’s definitely a werewolf?”

Koz followed his gaze and cursed. He opened the back seat of the car, gun up and trained out the opposite window. He grabbed his pack and the grocery bag filled with food and flung them out towards Jack.

“Load that into my bag,” he ordered as he grabbed the Bennett’s cooler.

He ducked around the door as Jack finished stuffing the plastic bag into Koz’s pack and slung it over his shoulder. 

“We’re going to run for it,” he announced. “Ready?”

Jack wasn’t ready. “Yes.”

“Good.” Koz grabbed Jack’s hand and pulled.

Jack had one moment to look back and see the vanishing light of day over the hood of the truck and then he was dragged into the dusky world beneath the trees.

There was one last crack of the rifle and then a frantic rustling as the girl chased after them.

“This way.” Koz pulled his hand and steered him… southward.

“But Claussen—“

“Too far!”

Jack couldn’t hear the girl behind them anymore, but he knew that wasn’t exactly a good thing. Sure enough, there soon came a terrible crashing and then a horrendous snarl behind them.

It was strange how this was starting to feel familiar enough that Jack wasn’t nearly as frightened as he might’ve been just the day before. Maybe he was just in shock. ‘Just keep running,’ he thought numbly. ‘Follow Koz and everything will work out.’ 

They broke through the line of trees just at the edge of a cliff. Koz clenched his hand around Jack’s and the two ran right off and plummeted into a dark, freezing lake.

As soon as the water closed over his head, panic set in. Jack flailed, yanking his hand out of Koz’s grip. He bobbed up to the surface and thrashed. “I can’t—” Water flooded his mouth as he bobbed under and he sputtered as he rose again. “—swim!”

Koz cursed. “Go still!” He cried just as Jack’s head slipped beneath the surface once more.

Jack looked up towards the sky. The surface seemed so close, but he couldn’t reach it. 

He bobbed back to the surface with a choked off gasp.

“Stop struggling, Jack!” Koz said.

Jack sputtered water and tried to obey. He went still and instantly sank, immediately the urge to move – to escape – outweighed the logic behind keeping still. His head breached the surface, but he didn’t see the forest or Koz. Instead he saw the handle of the utility sink in the laundry room, a voice roared over his head and he was pushed down. He tried to gasp for breath, but his lungs wouldn’t obey. 

His head slipped below the water once more. Koz grabbed at his hoodie and Jack felt imaginary hands on the back of his neck, forcing his head under. He lashed out and Koz let go of him.

Jack could hear the blood rushing in his ears and felt a burn in his lungs that was all too familiar. Darkness pulsed at the edge of his vision. He tried one last time to flounder his way to the surface, but it was too hard. Moving suddenly seemed like too much effort. He was just too tired. 

‘What do you know?’ His thoughts burst like bubbles inside his pounding head. ‘I went still.’

*

Jack woke on the laundry room floor, fluorescent lights beating down on him.

No, that wasn’t right. He woke on the dirt. The dim light above him was the moon, a little more than half full; it looked like a glaring eye.

He felt a heaviness on his chest and thought for a moment that it was the moon. The moon was a werewolf, pinning him down. He couldn’t breathe, it was so heavy.

The moon disappeared as a dark shape moved between them. Lips pressed against his.

That wasn’t too bad. They were quite soft.

Then lightning or thunder or death slammed into his chest. He coughed and the world came slamming back to him. Another avalanche of pain crashed onto him and he coughed again. Water, bile, and snot came pouring out of his nose and mouth as he spluttered for air. He choked and hacked, flailing weakly as he was pushed onto his side, feeling his face press against grainy sand.

He coughed and coughed and ugh – gross, gross, ow. He choked. He could barely see anything; everything was a blur of brown and black as tears spilled from his eyes and down his cheeks. The thunder pounded against his back over and over and after he’d gotten a few solid gasps of breath in him, he realized it was Koz’s hand hitting him, helping him get the last of the water out. 

Right. Koz.

He kept coughing and slowly Koz quit hitting him and started rubbing gentle circles on his back. Jack was shivering and crying and snotty. Great.

He lay still a moment, pulling air into his ragged lungs and letting it out again, trying to remember how this breathing-thing worked. Lying on his side, he could see the lake sprawled out before him. Beyond that was the cliff he and Koz had jumped from – he could tell because there was a tawny-colored wolf pacing along the top.

As he watched, a second wolf appeared. The two stood and stared across the water at them, neither group moved. 

Koz kept stroking his back.

“Thanks,” Jack croaked out at last.

“No need for thanks.”

Jack coughed dryly, eyes stinging from the pain in his chest. “You saved my life.”

Koz let out a huff of air that could almost have been a disbelieving laugh. “I’d be one hell of a bastard if I’d just let you drown.”

Jack coughed again. “Still,” he choked, “thanks.”

Koz let out a shaky breath and fell back from his crouch to sit on the bank. Putting his arms out behind him to steady himself, he let his head fall back. “You’re welcome.” Jack could see him shaking. 

They were silent a moment. Jack was trying to remember how to breathe without thinking about it. He didn’t know what Koz was thinking about. When he finally felt strong enough to roll over he found his companion looking up at the moon, a frown on his face.

Jack looked back towards the cliff edge across from them and saw the wolves still sitting there.

“Why aren’t they swimming over?” He said, his voice still gravelly. He coughed, trying to clear his throat.

“They probably don’t know how. Even if they knew when they were human, it’s… disorienting being in such a different body. You have to learn how to do everything a different way.”

Jack moved to sit up, but the pounding in his head convinced him this was a bad idea and he gently lay down again. “They can’t manage a doggie paddle?”

“You couldn’t.”

Jack let out a bark of laughter, then coughed. “Touché.” he mustered his strength for one sarcastic remark. His chest felt like one giant bruise, though he wasn’t sure if the pain was from Koz’s hits or his own hacking coughs. 

Koz frowned. “Sorry.”

“No, no, I’m all for inappropriately placed humor. Bring it on.” He smiled weakly, coughed, and pulled the smile up again. “So they won’t come over here? Where is here?” Jack tried sitting up once more, moving as slowly as possible although his head and stomach both protested quite strongly. The world spun in lazy circles around him as he rose onto two feet. Koz stood up quickly and grabbed his upper arm just as everything seemed to start tilting. Jack groaned as everything slowly came back together again.

“Alright?” Koz asked, but Jack didn’t respond. He was looking around, still disoriented. They were on an island, about fifteen by twenty feet around with a sparse patch of grass and a single tree holding it together.

“Jeez,” Jack said. “You know this place like the back of your hand don’t you?”

“I know all the safe-zones, er… almost all the safe-zones. The cabin wasn’t public knowledge,” Koz said. Keeping his hand on the small of Jack’s back in case he started to fall again. “Anything else you want me to find, I’m useless. If you wanted me to find you someplace nice like the highest hill…” He frowned. “Actually, I know where the highest hill is.”

Jack laughed and coughed (but it was only a small one this time, so he was showing some improvement at least). “Wow.”

“I memorized a topographic map.”

Jack stared at him. “Is there anything you can’t do?”

Koz thought about it. He actually thought about it! “Give birth.”

Jack laughed/coughed. “Okay, Batman—”

“Don’t you mean Superman?”

“You’ve surpassed Superman.” Jack wheezed. “What do you have planned now?”

Koz was quiet a moment. “We’ll stay here tonight,” he said at length. “We’ll have to take turns keeping an eye on them. In the morning we can swim back over.”

Standing started to seem like too great a task and Jack slowly slid to the ground, Koz following, hovering in a sort of mother hen way. “What if they’re still there?” Jack asked croakily.

“They won’t be. After they change, they’ll be too vulnerable. They’ll be naked, unarmed, and hungry. We’ll have to swim back towards the shore just before they change, then try to run for Claussen before they can get themselves organized.” Satisfied that Jack couldn’t faint while sitting down, Koz settled down next to him.

“What do we do when we reach Claussen?” Jack asked.

“Head for the nearest public building – get a phone and call for back-up,” Koz said.

“Great.” It was not great. It sounded like a huge long-shot – but so far Jack’s plan had been to slowly starve alone in a cabin, so he couldn’t complain too much.

“Most likely we’re going to have a long day tomorrow,” Koz said. “So we’d both better get some rest. We’ll sleep in two shifts, just in case our friends over there try and give swimming a chance.” He nodded towards the wolves on the bank. “You go ahead and rest first. I’ll wake you in a few hours.”

“Maybe you should sleep first,” Jack suggested. “You’re probably pretty beat from… y’know, rescuing me.”

Koz shook his head. “If I sleep in the second shift, I’ll be rested before I need to swim. You can wake me when the sky starts to get light.”

“Okay.” Jack didn’t really want to sleep. He’d had his fair share of traumatic events in his life and he knew that after today he was in for some intense nightmares. Still, it was hard to argue with someone who’d worked so hard to rescue you. Even if he was sort of a stone-cold killer. Actually, especially so.

Jack pulled off his hoodie. His undershirt was still sopping wet. In the cool night air, the wet fabric quickly turned cold. He ignored it as he wrung out the hoodie and then folded it into a pillow. He sprawled out on the grass, head still pounding. He was sure he wouldn’t be able to rest at all.

*

He woke what seemed a moment later with a start. The laundry room floor, fluorescent lights, encroaching darkness as he struggled for breath – they all faded away in an instant as he started awake to the sound of crying. No. Not crying. Howling.

Jack could see Jamie and the she-wolf on the opposite bank. They both had their heads tipped back, howling mournfully. Why shouldn’t they? Jamie had lost his father.

Jack was trembling. He watched the two wolves on the bank, larger than any wolf should be, as they cried for their lost pack-mate.

Koz’s hand came down to rest gently on his back and Jack started. “Go back to sleep,” he said, his hand running in small circles. “I’ll wake you in a little while. Rest.”

Jack closed his eyes, for no other reason than to placate his companion. The wolves’ cries followed him into his sleep though, and he fell into nightmares.


	5. Running in Circles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Morning comes and Jack and Koz set out for home, but the noose that's sat so loosely around their necks begins to tighten. A shadow looms on the horizon. The moon will soon be full.

It was early morning when Jack woke Koz, the first pale fingers of dawn reaching over the horizon. The older man looked up at the fading darkness overhead. He felt for the prickle at his neck signifying the wolf waiting to appear, but his neck hardly even itched. The moon’s influence was weakened, almost gone entirely.

The wolves had already disappeared; most likely realizing the danger of being caught in the open while transforming.

The two ate a quick, silent breakfast of stale, water-soaked jerky. It was not the most palatable of breakfasts, but Koz figured after having a brief soak in lake water, it was probably best to eat it before it became completely inedible. After checking over the remaining supplies, Koz gave a silent prayer of thanks to whoever invented waterproof plastic packaging. Except the jerky, all their supplies were un-opened and undamaged.

Koz ferried Jack from the island to the shore, holding him to his chest as he backstroked to the bank. He kept his senses peeled for any signs of the remaining pack members, but there was nothing.

Koz and Jack moved quickly through the trees. In the quiet of the early morning, they sounded like a train running through the forest. Underbrush damp with morning dew clung to their legs, coating their calves in broken leaves and grass, while birds cried their alarm at the sight of them and scattered noisily as they passed. 

Koz wished they could move a little more quietly, but he’d chosen to sacrifice stealth for speed. If the wolves were smart, they’d be hiding, waiting for the change so they could give chase with guns. Koz kept his own weapon in hand, just in case.

The sky overhead slowly turned from pale purple to pink. The light tingle which had lingered on Koz’s neck faded and gradually he slowed his and Jack’s run to a jog, then a walk.

The trees became sparser the further they went. Koz’s spirits begin to lift. They broke through a line of trees and found a clearing occupied by two picnic tables.

“Civilization!” Jack moaned happily and Koz smiled.

“Almost,” he said, “we’ll reach Claussen by lunch time.” They started walking along the trail near the picnic tables. It really did feel like they’d reached civilization.

“Oh God,” Jack said. “We can eat people food! I may just eat a whole broccoli stalk, I’m so done with junk food.”

“I agree, although I’d want a little more than broccoli. Maybe some baked carrots.” Koz’s mouth watered at the thought.

“Mashed potatoes,” Jack said reverently.

“Smoked salmon,” Koz countered.

“Garlic bread!”

“Cheesy, garlic bread.”

“Holy shit,” Jack groaned. “Let’s go to Red Lobster.”

Koz laughed. “Sounds perfect. I’ll pay.”

Jack gasped delightedly. “That does sound perfect!”

Koz laughed again. Jack was smiling and it was so bright and infectious and such a relief, Koz felt lighter than he had in months.

CRACK!

The sound echoed like thunder through the forest. A chunk of wood shattered off the tree just a half-foot in front of Jack.

Without a thought, Koz grabbed the back of the boy’s hoodie and pulled him off the trail and into the brush, taking cover behind a tree, pushing Jack between him and the trunk. He peeped his head around the trunk – where had the shot come from?

He spotted motion to his right and turned to see a blonde head disappear behind a tree. The girl from the truck. How had she gotten ahead of them?

“Not that way, then.” Koz took Jack’s hand and lead him deeper into the brush, heading northward still, but in a more roundabout fashion, so as to avoid the trail and the more open camping grounds. Koz kept his eyes peeled and scented the air as they ran from trunk to trunk – he’d seen the blonde, but where was Jamie?

A blur of motion was his only warning. Jamie was right in front of them!

Koz grabbed Jack and shoved him to the side as the shot hit a tree behind him. He swerved back towards Jack, dragging him to his feet and hauling him deeper into the forest. The nearest cover was a thick-trunked oak, twice as wide as he was. Koz flattened himself and Jack against the bark and looked around wildly.

Jamie had been just ahead of them before, now he was darting from tree to tree – repositioning. He held his shotgun in hand as he moved – completely nude but for a layer of mud slopped all over his body.

Of course, if the werewolves had no shame they could just grab their guns in their mouths and place themselves strategically so they could cut off their prey as soon as they transformed back to humans. They’d been so relatively non-strategic in their movements thus far; Koz hadn’t thought they would do such a thing. But, with only half the pack left, they would need to alter their methods wouldn’t they?

“Damn,” he cursed. He spotted the blonde darting around to flank them. “They’re trying to surround us.” 

“So what do we do? Fight them off?”

“Considering I only have three bullets left, I don’t think that would be advisable.”

“Why does your gun only carry five bullets?”

“Six. Because it’s an antique revolver and I wasn’t planning on using it in a hunt. Ever.”

“Great,” Jack pressed his forehead into the bark. “Unless my eyes were deceiving me, they are both naked. How many bullets can they have on them?”

“They’re using double-barrel shotguns and they’ve already fired twice, so at least two more.” One for Koz and one for Jack.

“Doesn’t that mean we have the advantage?”

Koz shook his head. “Not with one gunman. Even if I lined up a shot and hit one, we’d be vulnerable to attack from the other.”

“So what?” Jack spluttered. “We’re running?”

“Keep low, run from tree to tree. I’ll go first. You stick to me, alright?”

Jack swallowed. “Okay.” The scent of his fear met Koz’s strained senses and he forced himself to ignore it.

Koz bolted, heading deeper into the forest, Jack hard on his heels. Koz glanced behind them once and saw the two hunters moving – Jamie heading towards them, the other moving perpendicular, blocking off the northern path. He’d have to get rid of her first.

Koz whirled around a tree and stopped. Jack nearly collided into him in his hurry to follow. Koz turned round and pointed his weapon at the blonde girl, who was too focused on running to notice she was in danger.

“Sophie!” Jamie cried.

The girl – Sophie – threw herself to the ground without even glancing Koz’s way.

CRACK!

Koz ducked back around the tree just before Jamie fired his gun. “And now they have one shot left between them,” he told Jack.

“Shit, Soph!” Jamie cried.

“Go back to the car!” Sophie said.

There was a rustling in the underbrush as Jamie took off. Koz turned to watch him go, but there was no clear shot and even if he had more ammunition than Sophie at the moment – he couldn’t afford to waste it.

The forest fell silent as the sounds of Jamie’s retreat faded. There was a breathlessness in the air, a tenseness enhanced by the fact that all the usual birds had cleared the area when the first shot was fired. 

Jack felt the tension just as much as Koz. He spoke in a whisper. “Where is the other one?”

“I don’t see her,” Koz said, keeping his voice low. “She didn’t leave with Jamie, though.” She was all alone with only one bullet to help her. She was going to have to be cautious And so would they. Such a vulnerable position, so close to failure – to death - Sophie would also be desperate; Koz couldn’t let his guard down now.

“Follow me,” Koz said.

“That’s the plan,” Jack replied.

Koz hurried from one tree to another, Jack hard on his heels. He paused and checked their surroundings at each stop, feeling a little like a rodent hiding from a hawk. He saw no sign of the she-wolf. It was worrying. He was sure he hadn’t seen Sophie leave with Jamie. He kept his senses strained for any hint of her.

There was no scent on the wind. That meant she was downwind, somewhere behind them. Which was only slightly better than being in front of them. At least this way, she couldn’t block them off.

They kept moving, Koz tense from the continual stretching of his senses as he tried to detect the she-wolf. After the third time Jack walked into him when he stopped for cover, he thought he might scream – until Jack suddenly dropped down on one knee.

“Sorry,” Jack said, “gotta tie my shoe.”

Koz was feeling ridiculously strained and almost stupid enough at the moment to comment that Jack wasn’t wearing shoes when he saw Jack giving him a pointed look and gesturing behind his arm with a tilt of his head and a pointed look.

As discretely as he could manage, Koz glanced the way Jack was pointing and saw, between the leaves, a hint of gold.

Slowly Koz knelt down beside his companion.

From this angle, Koz could see clearly a few patches of skin showing through the leaves – even the shadow of a hand.

“Let’s have a rest actually.” Koz spoke just loud enough that he could be heard, but not so loud as to be suspicious.

He couldn’t see the girl’s face amongst the branches, which meant she likely didn’t have a good visual and was tracking them more on scent and sound. Moving quietly, he slipped off his shoes and jacket. The jacket he draped over a nearby bush, the shoes he set by Jack. He leaned in to whisper against Jack’s ear. “I’m going to circle around her, wait a moment after I’m gone, then I want you to put this tree between you and her, all right?”

“Okay.” Jack’s face was whiter than usual, but there was a determined set to his jaw that reassured Koz despite the scent of fear in the air.

Leaving his affects behind, Koz began to creep towards their would-be attacker. He circled wide to the left, until he could barely see the white of Jack’s hair through the brambles. He tried to move out of the wind, hoping his jacket would be enough of a scent marker to fool the girl.

He stepped carefully, testing the ground with his socked feet, searching for the quietest approach. He froze as he spotted movement.

Sophie was crawling along the ground, her thin body covered in mud and leaves with twigs caught in her long, blonde hair; every inch of her looked feral and dangerous, a beast in human skin.

She hadn’t seen Koz, but instead was eyeing where his jacket was, her nose crinkling as she scented the breeze. She began to creep around to the right, away from him, circling to where she thought her targets were. Koz saw that even moving on all fours, she still clutched her gun in her hand, the barrel smeared with mud to hide the shine of metal.

Koz remained frozen until she had moved behind a tree for cover, then he started making his way towards her, copying her idea and carrying his gun in his hand as he crouched through the shrubs, sometimes mimicking her and moving on all fours. He stuck to the shadows so the glare off his weapon couldn’t give him away. 

He was almost upon her hiding place when he glanced up and saw the double barrel of Sophie’s shotgun – pointed towards Jack’s hiding place.

Before Koz could move, Sophie fired. Jack yelped.

Koz was half-standing, Jack’s name on his lips, before he realized his mistake. He turned just in time to see the she-wolf racing towards him, twirling her weapon like an expert guardsman, before the butt of the gun collided with the side of his head and sent him to the ground.

“Koz!” Jack’s voice rang through his skull. 

He pushed himself up – or tried to – he saw patches of dirt, of sky, trees, and leaves, and pieces of faces and bodies flashing and disappearing like the Cheshire cat. Sounds flitted in and out nonsensically.

He didn’t think there were any words – if there were, he couldn’t understand them. He only heard short cries and struggled breathing.

Finally he blinked and the haze cleared up enough for him to see Sophie’s gun abandoned next to him. The girl herself was busy, tussling with Jack in the underbrush.

There was a patch of angry red scrapes on Sophie’s side and the left side of Jack’s head was caked in dirt. Sophie had Jack in a strangle hold – which would’ve worked better if he hadn’t squeezed an arm through her grip, stopping her from gripping his neck properly. For a delirious moment, Koz saw them as they were: two scrawny children who didn’t know what they were doing. Then he remembered one of them was trying to kill the other.

He came up behind Sophie, gun in hand, and in one move grabbed her by the hair and pressed the muzzle of the gun to her temple. Instantly, she froze.

“Let go,” Koz ordered.

She obeyed and Jack flopped to the ground. Hurriedly, he pulled himself to his feet, whirling around and staring at the two of them.

Koz saw his eyes go to Sophie’s face. ‘Don’t ever look them in the eye before you kill them.’ Koz remembered Astor’s words. ‘You’ll hesitate – and when you hesitate, all manner of things can go wrong.’

So Koz wouldn’t hesitate.

“Look away, Jack,” Koz ordered.

Sophie let out a whimper and Koz’s eyes fell on her. That was a mistake. He met her eyes and they were a brilliant green. Like Seraphina’s. And so, Koz did what he was absolutely not supposed to do: he hesitated.

CRACK!

Pain exploded through Koz’s arm. His gun fell to the ground as the muscles in his hand went limp. Koz grit his teeth, scooped the gun up in his good arm and ran for cover after Jack while Sophie scrambled the opposite direction.

Koz looked behind them and saw Jamie – now clothed – standing behind a tree with a gun in his hand. Luckily for Koz and Jack, he was more focused on covering his companion’s retreat than firing on them.

Koz ran, trying to support his injured arm as he led Jack away. They moved southward the pack were far behind and they reached a slow-moving stream. They walked through the water, Koz slipping over wet stones in his socked feet as the adrenaline wore off and agony sunk its teeth in. Still, he pushed himself onward until they reached a stony outcrop on the opposite bank, just large enough for them to duck under without getting too wet.

They could only rest a moment, Koz knew. Even with the water washing away their scent, with Koz’s blood-trail mysteriously ending at the creek, he doubted the two wolves would have much trouble tracking them.

“Oh,” Jack moaned. “You’re bleeding…” He stared at the wound in shock.

Koz grit his teeth and glanced down at the wound before looking up at Jack’s pale face. It hurt intensely, but he would heal. “Are you alright?” Koz asked.

“You just got shot!” Jack ran his hands through his hair, eyes wide and face pale as he watched the blood spreading, soaking the sleeve of Koz’s t-shirt and smearing across his good hand where he was half-heartedly trying to put pressure on the wound. Blood trickled down his arm and dripped into the water.

Koz looked down at the wound again, mostly to appease his companion. Koz had been unfortunate enough to break bones before and judging by the excruciating pain, the shot gun pellets had shattered the bone in his upper arm. A few pellets were definitely still lodged in his flesh, he could feel them slowly being pushed out. 

Luckily it wasn’t a silver bullet. Koz would much rather explain a wound that healed supernaturally fast than have a wound that wouldn’t heal quickly. Still, the smell of Jack’s fear was potent. Koz pressed a hand over the wound and grimaced. Ow. 

“We can’t stay here, long,” he said, keeping his voice low. The pack could already be on their trail again and he didn’t want to give away their position by being noisy.

“Shouldn’t you not be moving?” Jack whispered furiously.

“I’ll definitely die if we let those two get close enough for a clear shot.”

Jack would not be mollified. “Don’t you need to like… tie it off?”

“Relax, Jack.” He’d recover from it soon enough. He offered Jack a wry smile. “It’s just a flesh wound.”

Jack opened his mouth to say something. Closed it again. Stared at him a moment. “There is a time and a place, Kozmotis!” He cried.

“Shh!” Koz tried to quiet him, feeling amused despite himself. “You’re right, sorry.” Koz wasn’t sorry at all; his little joke seemed to have turned Jack away from panic-mode. He shifted to look out from their hiding place and grit his teeth as the muscles in his arm tried to function around the pellets and torn flesh. 

He wished he hadn’t left his jacket. It was worse he didn’t have his shoes, but at least if he’d had his jacket he could have used it as a sling.

“Um…” Jack said. “Could you use this like a sling?” He pulled at the front of his hoodie.

Koz raised his eyebrows, slightly amazed the boy knew about that trick. “Only if you don’t mind it getting covered in blood,” he said.

“No, you can save my life, but you can’t bleed on my things.” Jack rolled his eyes as he pulled the hoodie over his head. “The better question is:” Jack said as he helped Koz with his make-shift sling, “what are we going to do now that your shooting arm is busted?”

“I can shoot with my left,” Koz said. “This isn’t the first time I’ve ‘busted’ my right arm. We’ll be fine.” Or as fine as they’d been before – except they’d lost time and Koz’s shoes, jacket, blood, and bearings.

Once Jack’s hoodie was securely supporting Koz’s arm, the older man stood. “We’re going to move,” he said, “Ready?”

Jack offered him a weak smile and held his hands up helplessly, palms bloody from helping Koz with his sling. “Let the werewolf adventure continue,” he said ruefully.

*

Koz was right to assume the pack wouldn’t be gone for long. Shortly after they set out for Claussen again, Koz caught their scent on the wind. He looked back and sure enough spotted a skinny teenaged brunet darting along behind them, shotgun in hand.

They were in trouble, that was for sure. He started up a run and Jack hurried to keep pace, but he was limping slightly. Koz didn’t know how the younger man had managed to hurt himself, but it was looking like Koz wasn’t the only one being hampered by an injury. Sure, Koz could fire with his left hand, but the pain in his arm was incredibly distracting. The fight had already been two against one and now it was more like two against one half. 

Koz scrambled to recall his mental map of the forest. The last thing he wanted to do was lead them off a cliff with no water to catch them. Before he could bring up his mental map, he and Jack tore through a line of trees and found themselves outside the safe cover and at the border of a large field, which rose up in a gentle hill before dipping down out of sight.

Koz’s mind whirled. Around or through? His decision was made for him when he spotted Sophie out of the corner of his eye, cutting them off to the side. Through it was.

He ran, Jack close on his heels. They had to move fast before the two wolves could catch up properly and take aim.

The tall grass clung to their legs as they tore across the field, heading up over the rise.

Once they got over the other side, Koz reasoned, he’d send Jack for cover and set up a shot to take out the wolves as they followed. No wait, they might go around! Scenarios flitted through his thoughts as he struggled to recall where the field ended. It was tricky – he’d memorized a topographic map – he could recognize any land feature but not the flora. 

The two of them cleared the ridge and hurried down the other side before they could make too much a target of themselves. Still, Koz looked around to get his bearings. 

“Koz!”

Koz looked around at Jack’s cry and saw Sophie dart around a tree at the edge of the field.

“Keep moving,” he ordered.

He kept an eye on the girl, ready to throw himself to the ground at a moment’s notice, but she didn’t raise her weapon, she only watched. As they reached the bottom, she darted forward to the next tree and stopped, not aiming, just watching.

Of course.

Koz turned northward and ran toward the girl. She raised her weapon. 

He turned suddenly and took off southward. Jack cursed as he nearly slipped trying to keep up with the sudden change in direction. Koz glanced over his shoulder and saw that the she-wolf had lowered her weapon and was moving to flank them once more. Koz ran for the nearest tree line and dove for cover.

Once Jack had reached the safety of the trees as well, Koz looked out over the hill. Jamie came loping along over the ridge. Koz took aim and watched as Sophie raised her weapon again. She didn’t fire though, obviously making sure Koz wasn’t trying to lure her into wasting her ammunition. Koz lowered his gun, resolving to aim it at them without shooting more often. He might be able to catch them off guard by actually firing.

“They’re herding us.” Koz explained to his companion. “They’ll only fire if we go north or make a move against them.”

“Why don’t they just kill us outright?” Jack gasped, holding his side and leaning on his good leg. “Why all this running around?”

“I don’t know,” Koz said. “They’ve tried killing us outright and two of them are dead. We almost killed a third just a little while ago. Perhaps they’re hoping to wait us out, force us away from food and shelter until we’re too exhausted to be a threat. Slow hunting – it’s how cavemen used to take down mammoths.”

“Fascinating,” Jack said dryly. “So what do we do?”

“Well,” Koz sighed. “There’s lots of water around here, so assuming they don’t kill us when they turn tonight, we’ll probably starve to death.”

“Great, we’re back to my original plan.”

Koz bit his lip as he thought. Slow hunting was a passive aggressive move. It relied on the prey running more than fighting. He was confident he could beat the both of them if they didn’t have their weapons. If only Jack had a weapon they could stand on more equal ground. Ideas chased their way around Koz’s brain. It didn’t help his thought process when his concentration was eclipsed by the itching, aching, agony in his arm as shards of bone slowly fused back together.

It was not pleasant, but his arm would be functioning again in an hour. Sometimes it was good to be a werewolf. 

Oh. An idea sprang to mind. A very, very stupid idea. No. He wasn’t going to do that. Never. He’d sworn he would never willingly resort to that—

“Koz?” Jack’s voice broke through his thoughts.

Koz looked down at his companion and followed his gaze.

Jamie was standing just at the foot of the hill, completely in the open, his rifle half-cocked, just standing and watching from a distance.

Looking the other way, Koz saw Sophie standing an equal distance away at a different angle. She was dressed now, wearing a camouflage jacket over jeans and combat boots. Her hair was still covered in leaves and twigs and hung down in her face. Koz could still see her green eyes though. She was glaring daggers at him.

“What do we do, Koz?” Jack asked.

Koz sighed. “This way,” he said. It looked like he was going to have to do something very stupid after all.

*

They didn’t stop all day, partly to recover lost time and partly to make the wolves suffer. If they hadn’t eaten since their last transformation, they were probably near fainting with hunger by now.

As it was, the two were far behind when evening fell. Koz couldn’t even smell them on the breeze by the time they arrived at their destination.

Koz walked into the ring of trees and leaned against one of the trunks with an exhausted groan. He gingerly lifted his foot to see the shredded underside of his socks while Jack looked around himself. 

It took Jack a moment to realize where they were. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” He moaned. “The druid circle?” He flipped the strap Koz’s pack off his shoulder and the bag fell to the ground with a thud. “How did we even get back here again?”

Koz winced in sympathy as he slipped off what remained of his socks. “We’ve done a lot of looping back around I’m afraid. Aaron’s camp and the island pushed us westward…” He trailed off as Jack ran his hands through his hair with a frustrated sigh.

“So you weren’t joking about starving to death, huh?” He asked. “That’s the end game?”

Koz resisted the urge to remind Jack that they could always shoot each other first. “I plan on doing away with our attackers tonight if at all possible,” he said. “We may lose a few more pounds, but won’t starve. I’ll get you out of here, I promise.”

“How are you going to fight them?” Jack asked nervously, chewing his lip.

“Put my back to the circle. When they come at me in their wolf forms, I’ll open fire.”

“So simple. Nothing could go wrong!” Jack said, an edge of hysteria in his tone. “What about your arm?”

“What about it?” Koz’s arm had stopped hurting so long ago he’d almost forgotten he’d been wounded. He flexed his hand inside the sling. Everything felt fine – except for the sticky shotgun pellets that had been pushed out of his arm – which were now rolling around inside the sling.

Jack looked at him like he was crazy, then abruptly pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed heavily. “I shouldn’t even be surprised by the things you say,” he said. “Okay – what happens if they don’t come at us in their wolf forms? They still can’t enter the circle, but can they shoot through the non-violent druid barrier?”

“Yes.”

Jack raised his eyebrows in disbelief.

“Really Jack, we don’t have a lot of options, it was the circle or the island and it would be considerably easier to trap us on the island where we can’t fight back.” Not to mention eventually the full moon would rise and Koz didn’t want Jack trapped with him when that happened.

The full moon! A flash of panic shot through him. When was the full moon? His mind raced as he struggled to do a mental count on how many days he had left before he wouldn’t be able to control the change.

Three. His stomach turned with dread. Three days until he couldn’t control himself at night. Maybe two – he was more likely to lose control when he was stressed.

Three nights left until he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from trying to hurt Jack. What if they couldn’t get to Claussen in time? Scenarios began to play out in Koz’s head. He could swim Jack to the island and leave him with the gun. He’d never swam in his lupine form, Jack would surely be safe – but what if he wasn’t? What if Koz tried to swim out to him and Jack had to shoot him? Then Jack would be trapped on the island. That left the cabin and the druid circle.

The circle was their best bet. If they couldn’t reach Claussen in two days, they could make their way back to the circle. If they hurried. The cabin was out of the question, unless they started for the cabin tomorrow – but either way, Jack would have to be safely tucked away and Koz would be loose. He might stay near Jack in his lupine form, simply because he was a human that was nearby – but what if he didn’t? What if he made for the campgrounds? No, he needed to be contained on the full moon. Claussen was their safest option. Almost their only option.

To reach Claussen though, they’d first have to get rid of their two followers. If the situation hadn’t seemed urgent before, it was even more so now. Koz needed to kill Jamie and Sophie.

“Yoohoo? Koz?”

Koz snapped himself out of his thoughts to see Jack looking up at him in concern. It was an effort to force himself into the present when he was so very anxious about the future, but now wasn’t the time. Jack needed him. “Sorry,” he said. “Let’s have a quick bite before our friends catch up, hm? We’ll get a fire going and I can cook up some of the hot dogs.”

Jack seemed conflicted, but ultimately gave in with a small smile. “You’re a man after my own heart, Koz.”

Jack cleared away a patch of dirt and gathered dry leaves while Koz left the circle to gather wood, keeping his senses alert to any sign of their two stalkers. As he gathered stray branches, the sling became more obviously unnecessary and even downright unhelpful. Finally, Koz removed it and slung the ruined hoodie over his shoulder to free up his hands.

Jack had made a fairly decent pile of dry leaves and twigs by the time Koz came back. Koz set to work starting the fire, intently ignoring the open-mouthed stare Jack was giving him.

Finally, as Koz just got a bit of smoke going, the boy let out a strangled, almost frustrated sound. “What happened to your arm?” He asked, his voice a whole octave higher than usual.

Koz knelt and carefully blew on the tender ember he’d managed to produce. When he’d gotten the ember up to a respectable, albeit tiny flame, he spoke. “After dinner,” he said. “I’ve got some explaining to do.”

“Yeah,” Jack said, “Yeah, you do.” He spoke calmly, but his eyes told a different tale, they were questioning and astonished. Surprisingly, he didn’t smell of fear though.

After so long without eating, the hot dogs were heavenly. Koz was so pleased at the meal that he could almost ignore how Jack kept staring at him. It almost reminded him of Bunny, except Jack’s stares were more a confused need to reconfirm his strange recovery, while Bunny’s had always been from a wary certainty that Koz was going to suddenly transform and attack him.

Koz frowned. He supposed Jack was going to start looking at him that way too. He had to tell him – there was no sense lying about his rapid recovery when Jack might have to see him change in only a few short days. His stomach twisted. Maybe even a few short hours. God, how he hated this plan. Why did he come up with this plan?

He was pulled from his thoughts as he noticed Jack staring – not at him, but out into the brush.

“Did you hear something?” Koz’s hand went to his gun as he scented the air. Maybe the fire wasn’t such a good idea, he realized; the smoke was choking off his sense of smell.

“No,” Jack said. “I’m just antsy. It was… it was really creepy the way she crawled on the ground. She wasn’t even wearing anything either.”

“Some people find freedom in the bite,” Koz said, settling back down a little. “They feel like they are free from the expectations of human society. She obviously has gotten over the societal pressure to clothe oneself.” 

“Man it was creepy though! Right? It was like…”

Koz almost smiled. “Please name a pop-culture reference.”

“The feral child in The Wolfman. The new one.”

Koz smirked. He knew what Jack was talking about. Sophie had looked human and yet utterly inhuman at the same time. It was a sight he’d gotten used to after hunting human-shaped monsters like vampires and wendigos, but Jack was completely new to the concept. The young man seemed genuinely distressed. 

Koz didn’t like that, he realized, he much preferred when Jack was happy. “Oh?” He said, “I thought you meant The Wolfman with Lon Chaney. You know I saw that in theaters when it first came out?”

Jack was quiet a moment before he realized what Koz had said. “Really?” His eyebrows rose. “How old were you?”

Koz let out an incredulous laugh. “Zero, because I wasn’t born yet! I was being sarcastic. How old do you think I am?”

Jack put up his hands defensively. “I didn’t believe it entirely, I asked how old you would have been!”

“It came out in the thirties.”

“Forties!”

“That would still make me seventy years old.”

Jack ducked his head, lips quirked up in a weak smile. “I’m not good at math?”

“Apparently…” Koz couldn’t help the small smile that came to his lips. He’d managed to pull a smile from the boy at least. 

“How old are you then?” Jack asked. “Unless you’re so old that that’s rude to ask.”

“I’m thirty-five… How old are you?” He sneered. “Unless you’re so young, you’re embarrassed to tell me.”

Jack gave him a shit-eating grin. “I’ll be twenty next month.” Koz must have made a face, because Jack grimaced. “I know, I know: ‘But aren’t you in high school?’”

Koz held up his hands. “I wasn’t going to say anything.”

“I was already old for my grade.” Jack shrugged. “Then I missed a lot of school and had to repeat ‘cause I busted my leg.”

Koz frowned. “I forgot you mentioned that before. You must have hurt it quite badly to miss so much class.”

“Yeah.” Jack rubbed the back of his neck anxiously. “I was in a bad car crash.”

Koz’s eyebrows shot up. “Really?” Koz had been mauled by a werewolf, but a serious car wreck somehow seemed more awful to him. ‘And if that isn’t a sign I’ve been doing this too long, I don’t know what is,’ he thought. “I’m sorry.”

Jack shrugged like it was nothing. “Not your fault. Anyway, I got laid up and missed school and watched a shit-ton of television so… yeah. Math skills are low. Pop-culture references are high.”

“Understood, I’ll try to tease less.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Jack shrugged again. “Gives me an opportunity to tease you for not understanding them.”

“I haven’t even seen the new Wolfman movie,” Koz admitted.

Jack looked thoughtful. “I’d give it a five out of ten.”

Koz grimaced. “Maybe I won’t see it then.”

“No. There aren’t even any hotties in it. Watch Teen Wolf.”

“Oh yes,” Koz sighed in mockingly amorous tone. “Michael J. Fox is a babe.”

“Oh my God,” Jack laughed and the sound was too cheerful for their situation. It was infectious and Koz found himself smiling at the sound. He liked Jack, he realized. He wanted Jack to get out of here and be alright.

The fire crackled as the two fell silent. There was a moment of calm between them and then Jack took a deep breath and spoke. “I’m sorry if you don’t want to talk about it but it’s after dinner now and I’m really curious why you’re okay and not… y’know… fighting off gangrene.”

Koz let out a mirthless laugh. Where to start?

Luckily he was saved from an explanation as Jack jerked around suddenly. Koz followed his gaze and saw Jamie outside the circle, not quite at the edge.

Damn. Koz had really hoped they’d choose to change once night fell. Evidently they’d realized this didn’t always work in their favor. He and Jack would be sitting ducks now unless Koz could convince the two to change their minds and transform.

Jamie crouched down just behind a tree at the edge of the barrier, seemingly resolved to keep up the slow hunt and only ensure Jack and Koz didn’t escape. Good. He didn’t suspect Koz was planning an attack.

There was a sharp gasp from behind them and Koz whirled to see Sophie recoiling from the druid barrier, confusion and alarm on her face. Koz had tried to enter a druid circle when he wasn’t welcome several years ago. It felt much like pressing two oppositely charged magnets together, except you were one of the magnets.

Jamie stood up at the girl’s gasp of surprise and watched, baffled as she tried to put her hand through the barrier and found herself blocked. He looked suspiciously at the circle and then his face brightened.

“It’s a druid circle, Sophie,” he said in an almost excited tone of voice. “No one may enter if they intend violence to the ones inside.”

Sophie didn’t seem so impressed. “Can we shoot inside?”

“Um… I don’t know!” Jamie sounded inappropriately delighted to try. Sophie seemed ready to beat him to it. She raised her weapon and leveled it at Jack. 

He held his hands up automatically, swallowing hard. “Let’s talk about this?” He asked nervously.

“Let’s not,” Sophie snorted. Koz bit the inside of his lip. The snide tone and the roll of her green eyes was painfully familiar to him – just like Seraphina.

“You don’t really want to shoot us, do you?” Jack pleaded.

Koz undid his belt as discretely as he could manage.

“You’d have shot us already if you wanted to kill us, right?” Jack smiled in a way that probably worked on most girls. Sophie evidently didn’t feel the same.

“Actually we just didn’t want to waste any bullets.”

Koz took off his shirt. There was no way to do this discretely, so of course all three teens looked at him as if… well, as if he’d responded to a life and death situation by randomly stripping.

Sophie and Jamie at least understood his intentions as they both suddenly trained their weapons on him. Jack just stared as Koz unzipped his fly.

“Uh… Koz?” He asked in a shaky voice. The scent of fear mingled with something else fizzled through Koz’s senses, but he ignored it.

“Don’t even try it!” Jamie said, trying and failing to make his youthful voice sound intimidating. “We’ll shoot you!”

“Unless those guns are loaded with silver bullets it won’t kill me, only piss me off.”

“We can shoot you in the head,” Sophie said. Although the fact she hadn’t yet tried this told Koz she believed him.

“It won’t work.” Koz had never tried it personally, but he’d heard of werewolves surviving headshots. Granted, the healing time to repair a brain was apparently quite long, but judging by the two wolves’ reactions, they didn’t know this.

“Really?” Again, Jamie seemed inappropriately delighted.

“Jamie!” Sophie growled and made an incredulous face at him. Jamie smiled apologetically.

Their victims largely ignored this exchange as Koz stripped down to nothing and Jack stared in horrified fascination.

“This is how I’m going to die,” he said.

“You’re not going to die,” Koz said, folding his pants and dropping them to the side.

“Yes, he is!” Sophie snarled, leveling her gun at Jack once more. “I can’t hurt you, but I can hurt him!”

“It would be wiser to run.” Koz stepped out of the circle and closed his eyes. Whether she shot Jack or not, their best chance for survival rested on this and Koz would rather not see it. He’d sworn he’d never use this as a hunting tool, but he had to think of Jack first. He needed to get Jack home.

Koz reached for the ache resting on the back of his neck and let the pain wash over him. He felt the change come on, starting at the extremities. His nails extended and curled into claws while the pads of his hands and feet grew dark and rough. The pain in his neck erupted into a horrendous full-body itch as fur sprouted along his neck, spreading across his shoulders and chest, then downward over his backside and groin. 

His bones shifted and while it was not as painful as you might expect, but it still hurt like nothing else he’d ever experienced before. A burst of fiery agony ripped through his chest, his hole body rocked from a burst of pressure – someone had shot him – but it healed in an instant – only helping to blank out the pain of growing a new limb as Koz’s vertebrae stretched out from the base of his spine to form his tail. 

He was on all fours now, unable to stand abreast, and the ache was gone. In its place was a rushing, whirling blood-pumping – fast – fast - urgency that snatched away all human thought.

DANGER.

He was in danger.

“Soph, run!” He smelled fear. Jamie. Afraid. Good!

“I can take him!”

“Oh, God.” Jack. Fear. Bad.

There was a tearing sound as Sophie transformed, not bothering to remove her clothes first as Koz had. Koz could smell the change in her, from human-werewolf, female, afraidexcited to wolf-werewolf, female, angryexcited.

“Shit!” Jamie ran towards her, stinking of fear. Of the two of them, he was the weaker one.

Koz burst forward and tackled the boy to the ground. Jamie was tiny compared to his massive black form. The boy flipped over and held up an arm in defense - Koz’s jaws closed over it, teeth sinking deep into flesh and scraping bones, blood filling and coating his mouth. Koz could break them. Snapsnapsnap! Just a little more pressure and a yank and he could tear the boy’s whole arm off if he wanted!

Bad.

No, he wasn’t supposed to bite was he? That was bad? For a moment, Koz’s addled mind struggled to recall what he was supposed to do and why. In that moment, Jamie reared up, brown eyes flashing gold as he changed just enough to enhance his strength. He lunged for Koz’s face, but his teeth found only the fur on Koz’s cheek, too thick for his human fangs to pierce. Koz let go of the boy’s arm as Jamie began to thrash beneath him, wrenching his arm from Koz’s mouth.

Koz lunged once more and dug into the boy’s newly exposed shoulder, but his teeth had barely pierced flesh before Jamie fisted one of his ears in his claws and yanked hard. Koz yelped.

All of this took place in a matter of seconds and then Sophie – in her tawny, lupine form - tackled Koz off the boy.

The two wolves were a blur of fur and teeth as they struggled to hold the other down, each unable to gain a decisive grip to pin the other. 

A familiar fear filled Koz’s senses.

Jack.

Sophie made to lunge at him, ducking to his left in an attempt to grab his flank; he snapped at her in a fake lunge, and she beat a quick retreat as she tried to circle him for a clearer opening. She was fast, but he was much bigger. His golden eyes glanced towards the circle.

Bad!

Jamie, after being attacked by Koz, had dropped his gun. After a dazed moment of watching his sister wrestle the enemy wolf, he realized having a weapon would be ideal. Unfortunately Jack had had the same thought and ran from the protection of the druid circle to grab the gun before Jamie could.

Jack grabbed the shotgun by the barrel.

Bad, Jack, bad!

Koz turned and ran towards him, but Sophie darted around in front and barred his way.

Behind her, Jamie grabbed the shotgun handle and the two boys started a tug-of-war, with one struggling to get a finger on the trigger. Seeing his predicament, Jack changed tactics. As Jamie pulled the gun towards himself, Jack changed his angle and pushed, driving the butt of the gun into Jamie’s stomach and forcing all the wind from him.

Jack yanked the gun away, then stood a panicked moment as if wondering what to do next before he turned and ran back for the druid circle.

With a snarl, Sophie turned around and gave chase, Koz tearing after her.

Jack leapt through the protective barrier with Sophie snapping at his heels. Koz leapt, pinning her against the barrier. His jaws clamped down on the she-wolf’s skull. His teeth sank into fur and flesh and something warm squished over his tongue.

The she-wolf screamed. The sound surprised Koz so much, he let her pull away. Sophie staggered back, tail between her legs, crying and stumbling as blood poured down a gaping wound where her left eye had been.

“Sophie!” Jamie cried.

Koz watched the she-wolf’s panic, smelled her fear, and felt only a swelling sense of vicious pride. He snarled and lunged at her. The she-wolf let out a yip of fear and bolted away into the woods.

“Sophie!” Jamie cried, his voice vanishing as he hurried to follow her into the dark forest. “Sophie!”

Koz’s body was vibrating with energy. He shook to rid himself of the jittery feeling and licked the blood from his muzzle.

He turned towards the druid circle and saw Jack standing frozen and pale, knuckles white as he gripped Jamie’s shotgun in his hands, a deer in headlights. The scent of fear flooded the air as the massive black wolf stepped closer, lips curling over his reddened fangs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun Fact: Originally when I plotted out this arc, I was going to kill off Jamie and Sophie last chapter! But then I wrote the scene where Sophie jumps out of the truck and instantly sends Koz and Jack running for cover and I knew I couldn't kill her off. Stick around for more angry, badass, feral Sophie because I love her and she's here to stay.


	6. WHAT A TWIST

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They start on rocky ground and they end on rocky ground; a chapter about Jack and Koz's first heart-to-heart.

Jack was feeling a little conflicted to say the least. He wanted to run, but knew he shouldn’t. He was safe here, nothing could enter the druid circle that meant him harm – but there was an enormous wolf the size of a small horse standing just a few feet away from him. But that wolf was Koz, so it wouldn’t hurt him, would it? Who was he fucking kidding, of course it was going to hurt him, Koz or not, it was still a werewolf!

Some strange, hysterical, movie-loving side of his mind was shrieking through his skull: ‘HE WAS A WEREWOLF ALL ALONG WHAT A FUCKING TWIST!’ Jack had thought he’d somehow gotten trapped in some horror movie come to life, but now it was looking like he was in one of those sappy paranormal romance plots – did this make him the helpless human damsel?

Wolf-Koz stepped forward, yellow eyes boring into him. Jack realized he couldn’t have run even if he wanted to. He couldn’t stop looking into those supernaturally bright, yellow eyes. He was pinned by his own fear.

The massive black beast took another step forward, paws just at the edge of the druid circle. Then, with the slightest hesitation, he stepped forward again and entered.

Jack’s mind whirled. Maybe when he and Koz entered the circle together earlier, that made it possible for Were-Koz to enter now? Did that circumvent the no harm rule? What the hell was with the unexpected loopholes? And why weren’t they ever working in his favor? He trembled as the wolf slowly approached, staggering back a few wobbled steps before freezing.

Were-Koz came to a stop, standing unyielding before him, ears perked forward. Maybe the circle let him in because he wasn’t going to harm him? But those yellow eyes were still boring into him and he couldn’t look away. Wasn’t that a challenge in dog language? Should he look away? Jack had never had a dog – he didn’t speak dog language! But… he remembered, he did know how to say ‘hello’.

Praying hard and certain he was about to get mauled, Jack slowly offered the back of his fist for Koz to inspect.

For a moment it seemed to work. Koz looked down at his hand and sniffed at it gingerly, but then his eyes were right back up at Jack’s face and Jack didn’t know what to do. He felt as if one wrong move would get him killed.

There was only one other trick he knew.

With a shaking hand, Jack reached towards the side of Koz’s furry head. His fingers combed through the thick, soft fur on Koz’s neck and he gave a very tentative scratch.

The reaction was instantaneous. Suddenly, Jack found this enormous wolf leaning into his proportionately tiny hand; yellow eyes lidded and tail slowly wagging. He scratched again, moving his hand up behind Koz’s ears and the great beast stepped forward and buried his giant head in Jack’s stomach in what could only be called a nuzzling motion.

“Oof!” Jack staggered back. He could feel hot breath against his stomach where Koz was panting happily. He kept scratching behind the fluffy ears and smiled at his companion’s wagging tail. “Holy shit, you’re like a big, scary dog.” He huffed a laugh partly in amusement, partly in relief, bringing up his other hand to scratch both sides of Koz’s furry neck. 

An interesting fact Jack discovered that night was that wolves do not smell very good. But they were relatively soft and quite warm. This was good because halfway through the night Jack used up all the firewood Koz had gathered and the fire went out. Jack huddled against his companion’s side and slept.

He was woken in the early hours of the morning when the body beside him gave a great jerk. He sat up in alarm to see the massive wolf fall onto his side as his body convulsed.

“Koz!” Jack stood by helplessly as the wolf went through a reverse of the change Koz had gone through the night before.

There was the dull ‘pop-pop’ like cracking knuckles as the wolf’s muzzle shortened and his tail withdrew back into his spine. Koz’s whole body shrank and twisted as bones shortened and others lengthened, some disappeared altogether and others grew from nothing. The fur receded and Koz began to look more and more human. All except for one foot – which stayed a paw until, with a flick of his ankle like shaking off water, the paw snapped back into a human foot and Koz collapsed to the ground.

There was a moment where Jack didn’t know what to say; the silence was filled by Koz’s labored breathing.

Finally, Jack knelt down. “Koz?” He placed a gentle hand on the man’s shoulder. Koz groaned and began to move, his every movement shaky and slow. He coughed and gingerly touched his mouth – still stained red from his fight the night before.

Jack scurried to grab his ruined hoodie. There was a patch or two still clear of blood – what was a little more at this point?

“Here,” he offered the hoodie to his companion.

Numbly, Koz wiped off his mouth, the dried blood flaking away easily. Koz looked around himself, eyes not quite focused. Jack bit his lip. He didn’t know what to do.

Koz sat up more fully, his brow drawn as he frowned at his surroundings, eyes blearily following the movement of birds chirping and skipping from branch to branch overhead. 

His side was covered in grass and dirt, but beneath that Jack could see a lattice-work of scars from various scratches and pricks, too subtle for him to have noticed last night when Koz had stripped down. Most notable was a jagged swath of pale scar-tissue above his collarbone where large, canine-like teeth had once bitten in and then a perfectly circular one on his shoulder that must have been a bullet-wound. 

Jack’s eyes followed the pale lines and somehow found their way to the man’s lap. He quickly looked away again. Right. Clothes. That was a good first step.

Jack gathered up Koz’s clothes and set them next to him, wondering if he was going to have to dress him. Luckily, as soon as the clothes landed beside him, Koz blinked and snapped out of his stupor.

“Oh!” He started. “Ugh!” He began to rub at the dried blood around his mouth, even spitting, though by now he must’ve swallowed all the blood that’d gotten in his mouth. Jack winced. Actually, he’d probably be spitting too.

“Are you okay?” Jack asked when it seemed Koz had calmed down some.

Koz merely blanched in response and reached for his clothes. “I should be asking you that.”

Jack shrugged helplessly. “I’m fine! You however…” he sought for words. “Son,” he said. “You have a condition.”

Koz looked up at him, stunned for a moment, before he burst into laughter. 

Damn, it should be illegal for someone that hot with that cute a laugh to be naked. The young man pushed such thoughts aside. “Seriously though,” he said. “You got shot and there was some uh… rough-housing. Are you okay?”

Koz snickered. “Other than my ‘condition’ I’m fine. Hungry.”

“I’ll get that. You put on clothes!” Jack hurried to open up the graham crackers and waited until Koz had finished dressing before offering him any, then he sat back and watched while Koz nearly inhaled four of the crackers before pausing.

“Put them away please,” he said as he re-wrapped the remaining crackers, handing them back over to Jack. “Or I’ll be tempted to eat them all.”

Jack took one out for himself and stashed away the rest. “So,” he said with a mouth full of crumbs. “Are you going to tell me about your ‘moon sickness’?”

Koz let out a bark of a laugh and ran a hand through his hair. “Please don’t call it that,” he finally said.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s…” he laughed. “It’s not funny. I don’t know why I’m laughing. I think it’s because you’re being so casual.”

“Well, your arm healed in one day, so I was starting to suspect something… not natural.” Jack smiled a little helplessly. “I can act more freaked out if you want?”

“Please,” Koz said, “at least enough to let me know you have some sense of self-preservation.”

This time, Jack laughed, although with less humor. “Says the guy who was trying to kill himself.” He sobered immediately at the look on Koz’s face. “Sorry,” he said, “My version of ‘freaking out’ is reacting to everything with inappropriate humor.”

Koz shook his head. “It’s fine.”

Something clicked in Jack’s mind. “Is that why you’re out here? I mean… are you trying to, you know… because you’re a werewolf?”

“Got it in one.” Koz began to gather their things, face drawn and pale. Jack watched him, frowning, what did you say to that? Somehow ‘That’s rough, buddy’ didn’t seem to cover it.

“I’m sorry,” he settled on. “Does anybody know?”

Koz threw the strap of his pack over his shoulder. “Can we talk about this while walking, perhaps?” He pushed the cooler into Jack’s hands. “Now you know about my ‘condition’, you should appreciate my haste given my moon-related deadline?”

“Oh, shit,” Jack said, holding the cooler close to his chest. “The full moon’s coming? When?”

Koz checked Jamie’s shotgun for ammunition and found it fully loaded. “Not for a few nights, but the fuller it is, the less in control I’ll be. I don’t mean to scare you but… you should be scared.” He started walking, carrying Jamie’s shotgun. Jack hurried to follow after. “It’s already pretty bad. Last night… I don’t remember any of it. Usually, if I can control myself, I’ll remember it.”

Koz stepped over a knot of tree roots, moving carefully now that he’d lost his shoes. Jack hopped after him. “You were fine last night,” he said.

Koz stopped and turned looked at him, eyes dark. “So long as I didn’t bite you…”

Jack shook his head, a little put off by the intensity in Koz’s eyes. “No, just shedded. You were very cuddly!”

The dark look vanished in an instant as Koz stared at him in disbelief. “You really have no sense of self-preservation, do you?”

“You walked into the druid circle, so I knew you wouldn’t hurt me.” Mostly.

Koz shook his head, incredulous. He adjusted his pack’s strap and started walking once more.

Jack kept quiet for a little ways, hoping Koz might offer some explanation. They passed through the trees and came to a clearing, scaring the hell out of a bunch of rabbits, before marching straight through and back into the brush. 

It became more and more apparent that Koz wasn’t going to elaborate. Finally, Jack had to ask. “So it’s cool if you don’t want to answer this but – how did you become a werewolf?”

“I’d rather not discuss it,” Koz said immediately.

“Oh. Okay. I get it,” Jack said with equal speed. “It’s fine if it’s too painful to talk about.”

“It’s not painful.” Koz growled, swatting away a mosquito. “It’s… embarrassing more than anything.”

How could Jack not question that? “Did he catch you with your pants down? Or! Was it a girl into kinky biting stuff?”

“No! It’s just… a stupid mistake.” Koz waved an arm, trying to shake off the persistent insect. “I was hunting a Black Dog with my partners and one of them – Bunny—”

“’Bunny’?!” Jack choked, moving to walk beside Koz and nearly walking into a low-hanging branch. He ducked at the last moment, but still ended up with leaves in his hair.

The mosquito landed on Koz’s arm and he slapped it, then looked over at Jack in annoyance. “Do you want to hear this story or not?”

Jack brushed the leaves from his hair. “Sorry.”

“Bunny was supposed to be point with me while North – my other partner – guarded our rear. We were in a forest.” Koz looked around, the shotgun barrel gleaming in the scattered sunlight as he walked. “This forest actually. We were following-up on a lead about a Black Dog. We’d tracked it pretty far in when the trail split. We didn’t know there was a wolf in the area, we just thought it was the Dog giving us the runaround, so we split up. 

“Bunny hasn’t been hunting as long as North and I have and isn’t as experienced, so North went with him as back-up. I followed the other trail, found the Dog, and killed it.” He shrugged like this was too routine to bother with details, then readjusted the pack’s strap as it started to slip from his shoulder. 

“I went back to find the others. They had lost the trail – North had moved up from guard-point and was helping Bunny search. I didn’t realize there was anything else out there, so I wasn’t cautious approaching them. I was cocky and unprepared and I stumbled onto the wolf as it was stalking them. We were all taken by surprise and in its panic the wolf went through the easiest path – me. I killed it but… not before it got in a good bite.” He grimaced. “Several, actually.”

Jack winced in sympathy and promptly stumbled over a tree root. He’d been watching Koz so closely, he’d forgotten to look ahead. “I’m sorry,” he said, hurrying to keep pace and walk beside his companion. “That sounds awful.”

“Not my first mauling,” Koz shrugged. “Just… the one I couldn’t recover from.”

They headed downhill, heading into a sloping valley between two hills. The ground grew wetter as they went further down. Jack followed in Koz’s footprints, leaving his own in his wake. 

“But…” Jack licked his lips. “Is killing yourself really the answer? Couldn’t you lock yourself up or—”

“I’ve tried that.” Koz interrupted. “For months I tried just locking myself away, but it’s not that simple. I missed weeks of work when I was first bitten and I couldn’t go to the hospital or make any legitimate excuse. I lost my job and then in all my newfound free time, I suffered all sorts of side-effects: random spurts of speed or strength or sudden sensory spikes. I could hardly focus and I was always irritable or exhausted—”

Jack nearly slipped on the slick, sloping ground, but caught himself on a tree branch. He followed Koz’s lead and stepped carefully, focusing on walking along the drier tree roots. “But this is all past-tense?” 

“Yes.” Koz cleared his throat in a way that could only be described as self-conscious. Jack realized suddenly that he might not have had anyone to talk to about this before. He may be Koz’s only confidant on this, a man he had interrupted only days before and prevented from committing suicide. He didn’t know how to deal with this at all. As proven by the fact that he was definitely blowing it right now. 

They came to a creek at the bottom of the valley between the two hills. Koz walked over the larger stones carefully, while Jack tread through the shallow water and let the mud on his feet get washed away as he balanced carefully on the stony creek-bed.

“What did your friends do?” Jack asked.

“North blamed himself because he was the most experienced one in the group – thought he should have prevented it somehow. He was the one who volunteered to watch me when I changed. He had a sturdy cellar. But the neighbors could hear me turning. He got reported on suspicion of dog-fighting more than once.” Koz stepped off the last of the stones at the creek’s bank and started uphill once more. Jack hurried to follow after, his feet getting muddied once more as he started up the wet bank.

“Bunny tried to kill me just after I was bitten,” Koz continued. “North chased him off, but things were never the same after that. We saw each other a few times after that but less and less as time went on. I think North told him to stay away. Bunny wasn’t exactly the sweetest of characters originally, but after the bite he was downright vicious. I think North was worried about the outcome if we kept interacting. About what I might be pushed into doing.” Koz sneered ruefully at the thought and Jack frowned. He didn’t think he liked this Bunny guy, despite the cute nickname.

“Sometimes Bunny would come over the mornings after I’d turned,” Koz said, his dark humor evaporating into gloom as his eyes went distant at some memory, walking on autopilot. “I ‘d wake up in the cellar and hear them arguing through the floor. I didn’t know then…” He shook his head as if to clear his thoughts and hurried his pace, stepping over gnarled tree roots.

The shadows beneath the trees lengthened as a cloud passed over the sun. The gold and green of the forest quickly faded to pale green and grey. A soft wind rustled through the trees.

“I couldn’t leave Sera alone those nights I turned and I couldn’t leave her with just anyone - werewolves go after their family first,” Koz said. “But we didn’t want too many hunters to know about me because they would likely react like Bunny, so… well, North said he had it covered. Stress only weakens my resistance to the change so I trusted him and let him handle it.”

Koz grit his teeth in a deep scowl. “I had to do that a lot. So many of my responsibilities I had to let go and hand off to other people. I hated it. I felt like an invalid, unable to take care of anything on my own.” 

He shook his head as if to clear the thoughts away. “One night I got loose and that’s how I found out Bunny had been watching Sera. Luckily too. I broke into my house and tried to attack her. Bunny shot me.” Jack saw him gingerly put a hand to his shoulder, where he’d seen the bullet wound before. Koz noticed his gaze and readjusted the pack’s shoulder strap to cover it.

“All around sounds like a good friend,” Jack said, then bit his lip in shame at his own interruption.

“He was a good friend,” Koz insisted. “You’ve got to understand, in his eyes, I was already dead. Protecting my daughter from a monster is what I would have wanted him to do and he knew it.”

“You’re not a monster,” Jack said. He spoke automatically, but when he saw Koz raring up to argue, he realized he meant it. And the more he thought, the more sure he was of it. “You’re not! And y’know what? I don’t think Jamie is one either. Maybe the girl is – she seemed a little bloodthirsty. But really you’re just… you’re sick! You have a magical condition.”

Koz stopped walking just ahead of him. Anger flared in his every movement as he turned to glare at Jack. “I could kill someone,” Koz said. “If we don’t get out of here before the moon is full, I could kill you.”

Jack stopped as well, glaring up at his companion. In the gloom, Koz’s face looked darker than just his mood and Jack could see a strange, supernatural glimmer of gold in his normally brown eyes.

Jack was frightened; Koz was one hundred percent right and he knew it - but Koz was also wrong. “You haven’t killed anyone. You don’t want to kill anyone. In fact, given that you’d rather die than face the possibility of killing someone unintentionally, I feel pretty confident you’re not going to hurt me! I’m not going to let you kill yourself because you think you’re a monster, because you aren’t.”

“I tried to kill my daughter.” Koz said through grit teeth. “You think getting chased by a werewolf makes you some expert? You don’t even know the first thing about monsters.”

Jack glared right back, anger burning through him. “I do too! I’ve lived with a monster my whole life. Monsters aren’t just supernatural creatures waiting in the dark – there are humans that are just as cruel and senselessly violent. Some are even worse!”

Koz opened his mouth to argue, but Jack cut him off. “Seraphina is lucky to have a father who’d rather die than hurt her. I can tell you, I’d be much, much happier with a loving father who turned into a monster once-a-fucking-month, than some fully human asshole who randomly gets pissed off and purposefully takes it out on me.”

Jack could tell by the sudden slump in Koz’s shoulders and the surprise in his eyes that he’d successfully knocked the wind from his sails, but he didn’t feel as triumphant as he thought he would. Shit, what had he said? Oh Hell. Oh, fucking Hell.

Koz was looking at Jack … the same way all the neighbors looked at him. A mixture of pity for him and shame at themselves. 

Jack’s embarrassment at his own confession was eclipsed by a rising tide of shame. Damn, he wasn’t supposed to make Koz feel ashamed! He was feeling bad enough as it was. Jack was supposed to be convincing Koz not to kill himself and here Jack went made it all about himself and totally fucked everything up. 

The wind picked up, whipping through the trees, threatening rain.

Jack rubbed a hand through his hair. “Forget it,” he said quickly. “Forget I said that. I just… I want you to know that you’re a good person and you don’t deserve to die. Regardless of whatever you’re thinking right now.” He took a deep breath. “That’s all I had to say and now I’ve said it so… please, just think about it.”

Jack started walking again, hurrying past Koz. He didn’t know the way, but if there was one thing he’d learned from Koz these past few days, it was which way was north. 

Koz followed after, quietly. Jack wasn’t sure if anything he said would convince his companion not to carry through with his plan, but he found that more so than ever before, he didn’t want to return home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A very difficult chapter to write! My beta reader even yelled at me for not including enough scene description and then we ended up going over it twice (which we never do) and it's still not the greatest. Oh well.


	7. The Storm Draws In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for a talk.
> 
> Jack and Koz clear the air while the skies cloud over.
> 
> Darkness falls and then comes the storm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's here!! I'm not just talking about chapter seven, I'm also talking about the Something Wicked fan-made soundtrack!
> 
> Listen on 8tracks here: http://8tracks.com/guardian-of-da-gay/something-wicked-this-way-comes

There was a reason Koz had quit his job as a police officer. 

On a hunt, all the bad guys needed to be killed; but then, the bad guys were never human. They preyed on humans - they couldn’t coexist with them. The ones that could live in peace weren’t the ones out causing enough trouble to draw a hunter’s attention. Things were simple.

As a police officer, the shades of grey were stifling. Every action was cut off by either procedure or politics. You could know without a shadow of a doubt that someone was guilty and not be able to stop them. Even if you did catch them, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t still go free.

Koz had once believed in that order. He’d worked hard to uphold that vision of justice and convinced himself that all the good he did or was capable of doing would outweigh the number of the guilty who walked free. Every victim he’d let down was outweighed by some other good deed – he’d clung to that belief.

Until he’d started hunting. He got used to the shades of black and white and the grey of the real world was nauseating. Simply killing perpetrators became too tempting – too easy, too right - especially as he learned more and more ways to dispose of bodies without anyone knowing. In the end, he thought it was probably best he left before he did something he’d regret.

He’d left his job as a police officer, taking all the pride he’d once had in it and throwing it into this new work. During the day, he worked security for an office in Claussen’s downtown area. In the evenings he taught self-defense classes at the community center. He didn’t care what he did, they were just places to make money, not anything he considered his real ‘profession’. 

At night and on weekends, he hunted monsters.

It was exhausting and in hindsight, he knew he wouldn’t have been able to keep it up much longer, but he’d been happy in the black and white world he’d immersed himself in.

Jack was reminding him why that was.

He’d stumbled upon Jack in the woods and found him under threat by a werewolf. The solution: kill the wolf. But what was the solution when the threat was Jack’s father? Much as Koz would love to harm a man who abused his own child, he had something of a moral code not to kill humans. Besides, he knew from experience how twisted the emotions of abuse victims could be. He might kill Jack’s father only for Jack to resent him for it.

Calling the police would do little good - that he knew for certain. A barrier of bureaucracy stood between Jack and assistance. And there was little protection against the fall-out should the authorities step in and remove his father.

Maybe, with time, he could help him. Koz was sure North would try to remove Jack from his list of responsibilities, as he’d tried to take everything else from Koz (with the best of intentions) but he’d have to find out about Jack first. When they got out of here, Koz could help him.

Koz had been quiet too long, he realized. They’d been walking for a long time and the sun – when it was visible - was past its highest point. 

Jack kept shoving his hands in his pant pockets and pulling them out again and seeming overly embarrassed whenever his clothes or hair got snagged on branches. The boy looked increasingly uncomfortable as they walked and was just as quiet as Koz. If only conversation were one of his skills. How did one break a long silence after a confession like that?

Koz watched distractedly as a beetle scurried over the ground in front of him, running before him but not thinking to turn away from Koz’s path. The only thing Koz could do was offer some equally personal story, but he’d already shared his deep, dark secret. 

He stepped over the beetle, forgetting the bug instantly as he turned to Jack and finally spoke. “Are you hungry?” He asked. He’d sensed hide-nor-hair of the two wolves and thought it best for them to eat now, while they still could.

“Sure,” Jack said unenthusiastically. 

They found a patch of dirt relatively free of ants, but unavoidably full of gnats, beneath a tree - although they didn’t really need the shade. 

More clouds had come in across the sky as they walked, so it was now completely overcast. Every so often the wind would pick up and threaten rain, but otherwise the only water in the air was in the rising humidity.

Jack was just as subdued as he ate. He half-heartedly swatted at the insects flying around them and hardly took a few bites before he sat back, hands on his lap, and waited for Koz to finish his meal.

Koz was still starving, but he forced himself to limit how much he ate. Shortly after Jack finished, he carefully re-wrapped the graham crackers and packed them away. He looked up to watch the way Jack stared up at the sky, avoiding his gaze. 

They’d had plenty of times on their journey so far where neither had spoken, but there was always a sense of companionability in the silence, growing more and more familiar as the days went on. This however, this was just painful tension, thick as the moisture in the air and as grating as the insects.

Part of Koz wanted to pretend he’d heard nothing - to go along with Jack and pretend everything was as fine as it had been, but he also wanted to press on it. He wanted to help Jack, and that meant he’d need to get Jack to talk to him.

But how to broach the subject? He thought to his last therapy session with Tooth. Koz was quite a private person naturally and she’d always managed to pull him out of his proverbial shell and get him to talk. How did she do it?

“So… how are you?” He winced. He was off to a terrible start.

Miraculously, he managed to pull a weak smile from the boy’s face – although it was not quite as bright as the smiles Koz had gotten used to. “Fine,” he said.

Well, he’d warmed him up some. “I was thinking we could talk about what you said earlier.”

Jack let out a sigh and ran a hand through his hair, expression a mix of embarrassment and anxiety. “Yeah, about that, can you just… forget I said anything?” 

“Jack—” Koz swatted a gnat away from his face, trying not to break his line of sight from Jack.

Jack rocked on his heels and flexed his toes in the dirt. “I’m more concerned about werewolves right now.”

Koz wouldn’t let himself be thrown so easily. “Jack, please.” He flicked another insect away.

“I’m curious,” Jack said, rubbing his hands together and bouncing as he sat back on his heels. “Does my having this experience mean I’m going to have to become a hunter?”

“What— no.” Jack was obviously trying to change the subject, but Koz was determined not to let him.

Jack smiled, a dark, snarky thing, equally determined to avoid the subject as Koz was to address it. “How did you become a hunter then?”

Koz smirked back. “I’d rather talk about you right now.” Brilliant. Tooth would be proud.

Jack’s smile went wide. He fluttered his pale lashes and said in a breathless voice. “Buy me a drink first?”

Koz flushed and sputtered in shock at how pornographic Jack’s voice had sounded. The flirtatious smile fell from Jack’s features immediately as he laughed outright. It was a relief to hear the sound, but it did nothing for Koz’s pride. 

‘He is legal.’ The thought came sudden and unbidden to him and he balked away from it. ‘No!’ he mentally chided himself. ‘Bad!’

Jack was still chuckling to himself, quite pleased to have thrown Koz off balance. “Let’s get going, stud,” he said, hopping to his feet.

Koz wasn’t used to other people giving him the runaround like this. “Wait, Jack—”

Jack hooded his eyes slightly and looked at Koz in a way that could only be called sexual. “Coming?” He said in the lewdest voice possible.

Koz jumped up as well, frowning deeply. “You… brat!” He growled.

Jack snickered, a proud smirk on his face. 

The silence that fell between this time was easier than before. Koz lead them westward, heading downhill until they came to a shallow creek. Frogs croaked at an astonishing decibel here and the gnat cloud that had been persistently following them for nearly half an hour suddenly dissipated. They walked down the creek and they walked in the water – which couldn’t have been more than an inch high, but would probably rise considerably once it started raining. It was still oppressively humid, but with the water was cool and soothed their dirty, worn out feet.

Koz was trying to think up a new way to broach the subject when Jack spoke. “So, how did you become a hunter?” He asked.

Koz frowned. He wanted to get Jack to open up, not the other way around. Then inspiration struck. “If I tell you, will you answer my questions?”

Jack made a noise of frustration and looked away, but Koz could tell by the way he worried his lip that the boy was thinking it over. 

They came to a place where the creek merged with a shallow gully where a river had once run. Water trickled thinly between the large boulders and poured into the small stream. Koz lead the way over the gully, moving carefully across the cool stones. The sound of frogs fell away and he became of snakes as well as unstable footholds. He turned around, switching the hand holding Jamie’s gun, and reached his newly freed hand to Jack - who was struggling to keep up with his longer gait.

“Okay,” Jack said, taking his hand, “how about we ask questions – but we each get a free pass - at least one question we don’t have to answer?”

Koz hauled him up beside him. “It’s a deal.” He thought they should probably stop - if nothing else than so he could show Jack he had his full attention, but this idea was quickly dismissed. He couldn’t offer Jack his full attention - there were still wolves about – he might as well keep them moving towards safety.

“Alright!” Jack said. “So: how did you become a hunter?”

Koz carefully tread across the boulders, holding Jack’s hand and steadying him when he needed it. “You remember my friend Bunny?” He said, “his father, Astor, trained me. He taught me most of what I know. North taught me the rest.”

Koz let Jack go and carefully slid down the last of the large rocks. His damp feet met dry ground and where his feet had been briefly washed they quickly became covered in dirt and leaf fragments.

Jack jumped after him. The young man just barely managing to avoid landing on his face before he righted himself in a move that could almost be called graceful. “But what made you want to start hunting?”

“That’s two questions,” Koz replied, a little impressed at Jack’s agility despite himself. “I believe I have the next one?”

Jack made a face. “Fine.”

Koz started walking, Jack following alongside him. Now he had the chance, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to ask. He’d never had the need to discuss such a topic with Tooth, so he wasn’t sure how to approach the subject as a confidant. In the end, he fell back on his police training. He slowed his pace and looked at Jack until Jack slowed and looked back at him. “Has your father ever been violent towards you?” 

“Wow!” Jack flushed and looked away, running a hand through his hair. Unbelievably, he was grinning - his face frozen in a sort of twisted attempt at humor. “You’re starting with that! Okay. Um… pass.”

It was only his first question! Koz bit his tongue over a complaint. “Are you sure you want to use your ‘pass’ on this?”

Jack was still smiling. “I’m sure I want to pass on this whole conversation.”

“We made a deal, but if you don’t want to talk, we don’t have to – but I can’t answer your questions unless you answer mine,” Koz said.

Jack hissed through his teeth. “We can keep going, but I’m still passing on that first question – and you aren’t allowed to rephrase it and ask again!”

“Fine,” Koz relented. “I’ll think of another one.” Koz thought a moment, picking up his pace now that he wasn’t focusing so much of his attentions on Jack. He nearly stepped on a sharply pointed twig, but managed to pull away before he put his full weight on the sharp object. Inspiration struck. He slowed and looked at Jack once more. “The incident that caused you to enter the forest – where you ran in without any shoes on – was that because of your father?”

Jack’s smile finally sagged into a frown. “Yeah.”

Koz waited for an explanation, but unsurprisingly, Jack was hesitant to elaborate. The boy hardly looked at him, instead focusing very intently on the path ahead of him. “Would you tell me what happened?”

Jack crinkled his nose in distaste. “You sound like a cop.”

“That’d make sense, I used to be one.”

This didn’t seem to make Jack feel any better, judging by his scowl. “That’s two questions anyway, it’s my turn.” He seemed to brighten considerably when the focus wasn’t on him. “What made you want to become a hunter?”

“My wife died.”

Jack flushed. “Oh. Right. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

There was an expectant pause, where Koz focused on the path ahead of him while Jack waited patiently for more of an explanation. “You’re not going to elaborate either, are you?” Jack said, his voice deadpanned.

Koz smirked, keeping his eyes ahead of him and not on Jack’s indignant face. “I believe in equality,” he said.

“Fine,” Jack grumbled, grabbing on to a low hanging branch for stability as he walked over jutting tree roots. Koz took a longer path around the swath of fauna, letting Jack have the space.

“The night I got lost in here, I got in a fight with my dad. We were arguing about my grades, which then turning into arguing about college, then money, then my hospital bills, then the accident, which just circled back to his drinking – which is the worst place arguments can go with him. Mom stepped in to calm him down and I ran out. I wasn’t thinking about my shoes.”

Jack let go of the branch and tread carefully over the last tangle of roots. Koz watched, mulling over his next question.

“Did he hit you?”

Jack flushed, his lips drawn in a thin line and walked past his older companion. “I’m going to count that as ‘rephrasing’, so I’m not going to answer,” he said at last. “My mom stepped in. I ran out. I was just going to go into the woods and clear my head, but he followed me and he was still really mad so I ran and I got lost and…” He shrugged. “And now here I am.”

“What about your mother?” Koz asked, watching the line of Jack’s shoulders, taking in every action, reading him. “You said she stepped in, is that usually the case?”

“That’s two questions,” Jack quipped. “You’ve got to elaborate on how you became a hunter first.”

“Right.” Koz tried not to feel frustrated. He looked up to see the dark clouds through the tree branches and gathered his thoughts. There were few people who knew the real details of his wife’s death. It wasn’t a story he had practice telling – at least, not the real version any way. 

“My wife worked at the college in Claussen. At the time, we didn’t know that her predecessor had moonlighted as a hunter’s aid. There was a ‘G’ carved into the handle of her office door that signified the office owner as an informant – but she didn’t know it. She was in Anthropology and Folklore - she used to get hunters in her office asking about how to find and kill all sorts of magical creatures. We thought they were pranks or just overly imaginative students. It went on just long enough for me to start feeling uneasy. Jo – my wife – she still thought it was funny. Obviously we had no idea what was really going on.” 

He could still remember the way the sunlight shone on the bathroom tiles as the sun set over the trees behind their house. Joanne stood over the sink in her nightgown, the light shining through the fabric and showing off her curves. She was always saying she wanted to lose the weight she’d gained with Sera. She’d never gotten to it.

There was a period of time after they moved where Jo was working and Koz was searching for work. During this time, he’d stayed home with Sera, who wasn’t quite a year old at the time.

So while Jo washed off her makeup and told him about the strange man who’d approached her today at work, Koz was only half-listening, focusing sleepily on feeding Sera her bottle.

Jo was grading homework when he came back from putting Sera down in the nursery. He remembered how she’d smiled and taken off her glasses. How carefully she set them down on her bedside table. She turned off the light as he got into bed. They’d gotten so used to one another they didn’t even cuddle like they used to. They just lay down and went to sleep next to each other and Koz had thought that was enough.

The rest of his memories were fuzzy. 

Sera had started crying in the night. Jo’s hand gently touched his shoulder. “I’ll get her,” she whispered.

She left. He slipped back into sleep for only a moment before he was roughly woken by a scream.

Everything was splintered after that. Sera crying. Running. Slick red on the floor. A hulking white animal in the hallway. Blood. Red eyes glancing his way. Cracking. Crunching. Teeth.

“The wolves chasing us aren’t the first to target hunters, one mistook Jo for an actual informant and went after her.” He spoke quickly, trying to retreat from the memory. “Sera and I would probably be dead too if Astor hadn’t tracked the wolf to our house.” 

A whisper of wind blew through the trees, flinging warm, humid air in their faces like hot breath while dried leaves and twigs crunched under their weight. Koz swallowed bile and tried to ignore how all the sounds around him transformed into memories. There was a soft crack in the brush behind them and he nearly had a heart attack – whirling around and seeing nothing, though the hair stood on the back of his neck. He caught of whiff of something foul and animalistic, but whether it was the wolves, some animal, or his own memory, he couldn’t tell. 

He’d held Jamie’s gun rather loosely all day, but he now put both his hands around it, ready to raise it and fire if he needed to. His heart picked up, although it wasn’t because of his surroundings – was this normal paranoia or was he about to dive into a panic attack? He used to get them all the time – hence needing to see Tooth – but it’d been so long, he thought he was better!

Jack had nearly stumbled over a fallen branch and been too focused on watching his footing in the growing gloom to notice Koz’s movements. He walked on, oblivious to his companions rising distress. “So what happened to the wolf?” Jack’s words cut through Koz’s spiraling thoughts. “Is he still out there?”

Koz took a deep shaky breath and let it out again slowly. The air was stagnant, smelling strongly of earth and rain, but too still to catch anything else. He took another breath and felt just slightly better, just that inch of calm was enough to pull him back – he was better after all. 

He started after Jack before the boy could notice him falling behind. “Possibly,” he said. “He’s actually a little famous, or infamous rather - something of a ghost story to hunters. They call him the White Wolf. He’s albino, which is as rare in werewolves as it is in humans.”

“Is he like… an alpha?” Jack asked. “Do real werewolves have those?”

“Yes. We call them Tsars – or Russian hunters do, according to North. They’re werewolves that purposefully turn people and take advantage of their fear and confusion to rope them into working under them. Most wolves are just confused and frightened victims or else opportunistic rogues – Tsars are different because they’re organized and they organize those under them like a gang. Other wolves might get lucky and accidentally kill a hunter, but the White Wolf has a reputation for it.”

Jack chewed the inside of his lip. “So what… are you on some sort of vengeance spree then?”

The corner of Koz’s mouth quirked up, almost like a smile. “Maybe a little at first,” he admitted, “but I quickly realized you can’t go off on a ‘revenge spree’ when you’re a single father – at least, not if you want to do a good job of it. Instead I work more as a… weekend warrior. I go after any monsters I catch wind of within driving distance and make friends with people I can trust to look after my daughter and protect her from anything should the worst happen to me.”

They came to a break in the tree line. The air flowed freely here and they took a moment to appreciate the breeze. It was still humid, but at least it wasn’t so stagnant. Jack pulled on the front of his shirt, fanning himself with the fabric - no doubt trying to relieve the general sticky feeling the moist air was pressing on to them. Koz took a few deep breaths and felt the last of his anxiety from before fade away. 

He looked behind him, feeling calm enough to consider whether he’d really caught the scent of wolf in the air before. He didn’t see anything and the wind – what little there was – wasn’t blowing the right way for him to catch the scents behind them. He’d been so focused on Jack after they started this little question game that he’d hardly taken in his surroundings. He still hadn’t quite caught any real hints that the pack was following them, but his instincts told him to be wary. Something was out there and he wasn’t sure how long it had been following, but it seemed to be coming closer now.

The sky was a deep, dark grey – far too cloudy to tell how low the sun had gotten, but dark enough that the sun was certainly low. He could even feel a faint tingle along the back of his neck where the beast in him was beginning to shift into wakefulness as night drew near. He said nothing about this to Jack. No sense in causing him any more distress. He’d simply have to pay attention.

Koz started walking. “I think that was at least three questions in a row, wasn’t it?” He glanced back, pretending like he was looking at Jack when he was really glancing at the woods behind him.

Jack remained oblivious. He groaned and trudged after him.

“I was asking if your mother regularly steps in?” 

Jack ran a hand through his hair in an unconscious show of nerves. “I guess,” he said at length. “Sometimes stepping in helps, sometimes it makes things worse. We’ve all just learned to read the signs.”

Koz’s expression was carefully neutral. “Is your mother ever violent towards you?”

Jack shook his head. “It’s mostly that she’s stupidly tolerant of his bullshit.” He rolled his eyes. “According to her I just need to learn not to provoke him. Which I would do if I were smart, but… I’m not.”

Even more so than Koz couldn’t wrap his mind around a parent maliciously harming their child, he couldn’t imagine ignoring your spouse while they abused your child. He tried to stamp down his judgment. He couldn’t imagine it because he’d never been in such a situation. Besides, acting judgmental might only serve to put Jack on the defensive. 

Jack stumbled over a branch and cursed softly. Koz remembered suddenly that the younger boy could probably barely see with how dark the forest had gotten. He reached out and took Jack’s hand. “Here,” he said, “I’ve got better night-vision than you.”

“Oh,” Jack swallowed. “Cool.”

Koz looked around as he led Jack along, acting like he was getting his bearings when he was really checking for any sign of the wolves. “Have you ever talked to the police or anyone else?”

“Once…” 

Koz’s eyes fell on Jack at the pause. The boy was biting his lip, seeming to think over his words before he spoke. “I was… worried… for my sister. It was nothing though. They said it was nothing. Of course, by now they’ve been called enough times that if it happened again and I called, they’d probably believe me but… well, I’ve never been worried about my sister again since then so...” He shrugged. “Other than that the only person I’ve talked this much about my home life with is you.”

Koz wasn’t sure what to say to that. “I’m glad you decided to share.”

Jack rolled his eyes and snorted, but it wasn’t malicious. “You’re welcome, I guess. My turn to ask a question.” He looked towards Koz, his eyes not quite finding Koz’s face and Koz felt strange to think that he could see Jack so well, while Jack could barely make out his face in the gloom.

Koz glanced up and around quickly. Still no wolves in sight, but the feeling in his gut was only growing. “Oh?”

“Where are we?” Jack looked around as if to emphasize his confusion. “I thought we were headed to the lake.”

Koz smirked and allowed the change in subject. He’d gotten Jack to open up more than he’d expected and was happy to offer him a temporary respite. “We’ve gone the opposite direction of the lake,” he said. “Last time we went northwest. We’re heading east this time, towards the highway.”

“Where someone would be sure to pick us up, seeing as we’re about ten minutes away from this being a ‘dark and stormy night’ and we are super non-suspicious-looking,” Jack said, tugging gently on his filthy white shirt as if to emphasize. 

Koz chuckled as he looked down at the two of them. Bare-foot and filthy, with clothing torn and smeared with blood in places, not to mention carrying loaded weapons? If they walked out of the forest and tried to flag down a vehicle this late in the evening looking the way they did, the only people likely to pick them up would be the police.

“At least we’d be out of the woods. The wolves might be shyer about appearing with so many witnesses and even if we ended up in the back of a cop car, it’d still be better than getting mauled or shot.”

“Point taken,” Jack said with a smile. His grin faded quickly. “I’m starting to feel hopeful,” he said.

Koz raised his eyebrows. “Oh, dread.”

“No, I mean, that’s usually when something goes horribly wrong,” Jack looked around at the gloomy forest fretfully and nearly fell on his face tripping over another branch.

Koz caught and righted him. “True,” he said, “but that’s why you have me here.” Koz looked around at the trees and saw nothing – and unlike Jack, he could see in the dark. He knew though, something was there – hidden, or else far enough away that he couldn’t see it – but the wolf in him was beginning to stir and it felt uneasy. “Besides—” He turned back to Jack and smirked wryly. “You can’t be too hopeful – we’re not out of the woods yet.”

Jack narrowed his eyes at him. “Kozmotis, did you just make a pun?”

Koz adjusted the pack on his shoulders and let go of Jack’s hand to switch the hand holding Jamie’s gun. He smirked to hide his unease, remembering at the last second that Jack couldn’t see it. “I did. Wasn’t it ‘punny’?”

“Shut up!” Jack shoved him blindly and Koz nearly laughed it was so playful and unexpected. For a second he forgot his anxiety. 

“Don’t distract me from being negative!” Jack said, “something bad will happen if I start being happy.”

As if to prove his point, the sky let out a deep rumble of thunder.

Koz jumped, nerves from before causing him to start at the sound. The two stood frozen, surprised, alarmed, and amused at the universe’s comedic timing, before they both broke into nervous laughter. 

Jack looked up at the dark sky while Koz did a subtle look around. An ache crawled its way down the back of his neck as the wolf in him woke. Night had fallen. He heard the crunch of leaves behind them and turned in time to see the foliage some thirty feet from them, shaking gently.

Koz sobered immediately. “Nothing bad will happen to you,” he said, adjusting his grip on Jamie’s gun as he watched the shaking branches. “I promise.”

Jack lowered his gaze. “You’re gonna jinx me!” He cried in mock dismay before he made out Koz’s rigid posture through the gloom. “Koz?”

The wind picked up and the trees groaned, leaves rustling. A bird flew by overhead and disappeared into the branches. There was another rumble overhead. It seemed the rain had finally arrived.

Koz inhaled deeply, scenting the rain coming on the breeze. He grimaced as he caught a familiar, animalistic musk. All the greenery in the forest was moving now as the wind whipped through, but he kept his eyes trained on the branches that had trembled when night set in, muscles tense and hair rising along his nape.

Jack tried to follow Koz’s gaze. With the wind blowing as it was, the whole forest was alive and moving, grass and branches and leaves waving and rattling in the wind. Birds scattered, seeking shelter from the coming storm. The only stillness to be seen in the late-evening gloom beneath the rustling trees were two dark far-off shapes, emerging silent and still against the thrashing brush, their eyes glowing dimly from the shadows.

Jack groaned, no doubt seeing the eyes and knowing what they meant. “What did I tell you?” he said. “You jinxed us.” He sounded almost nonchalant, but Koz could smell his fear. “What do you think? Should I climb a tree or run or just curl up and get eaten?”

Koz frowned, watching the two wolves warily. “I’m afraid if we don’t make it back to civilization tonight, we’ll have to turn around and find a place where I’ll be safe on the full moon.”

“So it’s do or die time, huh?”

“Yes.” Koz’s eyes followed as the two shadows separated. The paler of the two shadows – Sophie - edged to the right, obviously wanting to approach, but not doing so. Perhaps she was wary now that Koz had two weapons.

Jack stepped closer to him, fingers shifting nervously at his sides. “What’s the plan?”

Scenarios played their way through Koz’s mind in an instant. “When I say ‘run’, you go. I’ll cover your retreat.”

Jack bit his lip, fear rolling off him like smoke. “You know they did something like that in Jurassic Park and it didn’t work so well for the guy left behind.” 

“Unless they’ve brought silver bullets or have something to use to chop me in half – which they’d have to hold with their paws, might I add – they can’t kill me,” Koz said.

“Chop you in half?!” Jack let out a quiet, strained laugh. “Just like Teen Wolf,” he added ruefully.

Koz watched the two wolves carefully. They still weren’t moving. He didn’t like that. He rested Jamie’s stolen shotgun in the crook of his arm and pulled his own pistol from its holster. He offered the weapon to Jack. “Here.”

Jack reached out blindly, his hand finding Koz’s. His eyes widened and he pulled his hand away, looking down at the gun in Koz’s hand as if Koz were offering him something horrific like a live grenade or a spider. “Don’t you need that?” Jack deflected. 

“I’ve got Jamie’s gun.” Koz shifted his arm to indicate the shotgun, keeping his eyes glued on the two wolves lest they decide to charge. “Plus very sharp teeth and a healing factor.”

“I’ve never shot a gun before,” Jack admitted, taking the weapon in shaking hands. It was obvious just from the way his hands sagged instantly that he was completely unused to handling such a weapon – even the weight was a surprise to him.

“Hold it with both hands, keep both eyes open, and be careful about the kick-back.”

Sophie had come creeping closer towards them, her brother following shortly, his lupine form mimicking Jack’s anxiety.

“I don’t know how good my aim is,” Jack said, looking uncertain and smelling mildly of panic. “And it’s so dark, I can barely see!”

“It’s my intention that you won’t have to try and test your aim,” Koz said. “You can feel the ground sloping upwards right? Keep heading up – when you come over the rise you’ll be able to see the lights from the road.”

Koz could smell Jack’s fear as an overwhelming acidity mixed with the moisture in the air, but was glad to see Jack adjust, holding the gun properly and squaring his jaw. He at least didn’t look afraid. “For the highway?”

“Flag down a vehicle. I’d recommend hiding the pistol first – but be sure to turn on the safety.” He pointed it out to Jack, keeping one eye out for the two wolves.

He couldn’t think why there weren’t doing anything. Were they planning on stalking them into exhaustion? Waiting to see what Koz would do? Wary, now that he’d proven he could fight them wolf-to-wolf?

“What if you get hurt? Or if you don’t catch up before some Good Samaritan whisks me away in their car?”

“I can handle myself,” Koz said. “But if it makes you feel better, you can call my partners. Bunny will be the easiest to find, he’s the only Bunnymund in the phone book.”

“Bunnymund. Okay.” Jack hunched his shoulders and adjusted his grip on the gun. “Do you think they’ll chase me?”

“I’ll shoot them if they do. And unlike I’m a good shot.”

Jack shook out his feet, stretching, nervous energy pouring off of him.

“On my signal.” Koz cocked his gun, trying to appear nonchalant, while keeping his gaze trained on the two wolves. A drop of rain hit the barrel of his gun with a soft ‘ping’ and rolled down the cool metal before falling to the ground. “Go.”


	8. Nothing Left to Give

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The wolves stage their final attack, but not everything is as it seems.
> 
> The final chapter of the 'Something Wicked This Way Comes' arc.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget to listen to the lovely 8tracks playlist that matches this arc!
> 
> Listen here: http://8tracks.com/guardian-of-da-gay/something-wicked-this-way-comes

Jack remembered the first night he’d encountered the wolves. Days after he’d gotten lost in the woods, he’d stumbled, half-starving and dehydrated into the clearing where the cabin sat. He’d cried when he found there was food. He wasn’t ashamed to admit it.

He’d spent a few nights at the cabin, waiting aimlessly for someone – anyone – to come and find him there. Then he’d found the bone pile. He hadn’t wanted to stay after that.

He’d jammed his pockets full of poptarts and stuffed jerky into his hoodie pocket then headed off in a vaguely southward direction. When night fell, he’d thought little of it.

He had had many nights in the woods before going to the cabin. It was terrifying – he’d heard sounds he’d never conceived of before – but he expected that by then. Then he’d seen the eyes glowing from the darkness and felt such an intense unparalleled terror at the sight. He’d run. The thing had chased him.

It was dark as pitch then and he was all alone and terrified. Just like now.

Jack’s lungs burned as his feet grew numb. The gun felt heavy in his hand. He hoped he wouldn’t need to use it. He listened hard for sounds of pursuit, but the rain was beginning to fall harder now, cutting off distant sounds, blurring his already poor vision. All he could hear was his own labored breathing, the rain striking the canopy of leaves overhead, and the crash of the undergrowth as he ran.

He stumbled over some unseen object and crashed through the brush, foot coming down hard on something sharp as he tried to right himself without pausing, staggering as he regained his footing. There was no light beneath the trees, none at all. Occasionally lightning flashed in the distance and everything light up in jagged, confusing patches of black and white, but otherwise. Nothing could be seen. It was a darkness that Jack didn’t know existed until he’d been trapped in these woods.

He glanced behind himself, looking for the fluorescent glare of werewolf eyes – he hadn’t forgotten how their glow had saved him the first time he’d encountered the wolves. Then, he’d managed to haul himself up into a tree, climbing high and fast. He’d spent the rest of that night clinging to the trunk, shivering and sometimes crying through his terror – another thing he didn’t know the possible depths of until he’d been trapped in these woods. He’d felt like prey then and he felt like it now – but he couldn’t climb away and hide. Koz had said to reach the road and Koz knew what was best.

Jack slipped over slick mud as he ran up the edge of the rise and then started down the other side. In the darkness, he couldn’t make out anything and – inevitably - he slammed into a tree. His teeth rattled in his skull, as he was knocked back. He hit the wet ground and popped up, on his feet again in an instant and running once more.

The rain came down harder and made a thunderous, rattling, rustling cacophony of flailing branches and falling leaves. Jack could hardly hear anything else and then a sound came to him. A dull roar that rose up fast, flew past him, and was gone in an instant.

Traffic!

Jack could have wept. He’d never thought he’d be so glad to hear the sound of tires on pavement. The foliage thinned out ahead of him and he began to see a dull light shining through the leaves.

Then he heard it. 

He’d thought the rain was too loud, but it was nothing compared to the familiar panting of a canine and the sound of foliage breaking as a huge animal made its way towards him, coming in fast.

‘It might just be were-Koz following after me.’ He thought hopefully. ‘Except Koz was going to use the gun first and I haven’t heard any gun shots.’

He ran. The leg he’d injured in the accident protested, but he pushed through – push through – push through – tried to remember his physical therapist’s voice. Go go go-don’t stop-almost there!

A car drove by and suddenly he could see! The passing headlights blasted through the darkness, reflecting off the falling rain like a thousand tiny falling stars, and then the car was gone and the wolf was closer - he could hear it.

Jack whirled, pressing his back to a large oak tree, trying to silence his breathing to hear better.

He pointed Koz’s gun in the direction of the approaching wolf. He breathed deeply and adjusted his grip on the foreign weapon. ‘Relax’, he told himself. ‘The last thing you want to do is accidentally shoot Koz because you’re so jumpy you shoot at the first sign of movement.’

The nearing sounds stopped suddenly. The hair raised on the back of Jack’s neck. His eyes flashed around the gloom for any sign of the beast’s glowing eyes. Was Koz there? Why didn’t he approach?

Jack couldn’t help but think of Sophie crawling slowly along the ground to creep up on him – what if he was being stalked at this moment? He looked to his left and right and back again but he saw nothing. The hair stood up on the back of his neck and his hands were damp and shaky around his borrowed weapon.

He could run for the road – he’d be safer there – but that would leave him vulnerable. At least with his back to the tree, he felt a little sheltered. He didn’t think he could outrun a werewolf – but he didn’t think he could out-fight one either.

He was shaking. Sweat trickled down his temple and the gun felt slippery in his damp palms. With nervous jerkiness, he switched the gun from hand-to-hand and wiped his palms on his pants.

Time seemed to crawl by. Jack got more and more anxious as the seconds past. It definitely wasn’t Koz; he was surer as the moments trickled by. But that meant it was another one. He wiped sweat from his forehead and adjusted his grip on the gun.

A crack rang out in the distance and Jack jumped. “Koz,” he breathed, nearly taking a step away from the safety of the tree. Koz was in trouble!

But he couldn’t help Koz. The best thing he could do was get to a phone. But first, he needed to get to the road. 

He scanned the trees nearby and picked out a nice big one, then bolted for it, swinging around to put his back to it and bringing up his gun in one motion, scanning the surrounding foliage for signs of pursuit. Adrenaline coursed through him. He was trembling from nerves and the cold, sweat and rainwater plastered his hair to his head and his shirt to his chest.

‘Hold on, Koz,’ he thought. He ran for the next tree and flattened himself against the damp bark. 

This time when he held his breath, he heard a car. Headlights shone through the trees, light shining through in thin bars, coming towards him and flashing by – but not before Jack spotted a furry head and a pair of luminous green eyes disappear back around the tree he’d just taken cover at.

Another shot rang out close by. Jack jumped and for a split second the echoes of the shot made him deaf to the crashing underbrush.

A car sped by and light flashed around Jack’s tree, illuminating the wolf’s form mid-pounce, long, white fangs gleaming. Jack threw himself to the ground with a yelp.

He rolled away and jumped to his feet as the wolf hit the tree and sprang off, moving so fast, Jack could barely keep track of it. The car on the highway sped away and it was dark once more – but the wolf wasn’t hiding anymore and Jack could see its glowing eyes perfectly as the animal charged him.

He raised his gun just as the beast leapt at him, barreling him over and forcing the breath from his lungs.

Jack felt hot breath on his face and he clenched his hand around his weapon.

Bang!

The pistol kicked back into Jack’s chest and he wheezed – it felt like he’d been punched in the chest! Before he could catch his breath, the wolf collapsed on top of him.

Jack let out a choked yelp, thinking he was about to be bitten, until he realized the wolf was limp, its head heavy and lifeless against his neck.

It was then Jack realized he couldn’t breathe. The wolf was enormous! He started to kick and squirm, surprisingly un-panicked, despite how his lungs burned for air. He managed to get his chest free and gasped for air, his battered chest aching sharply with each greedy inhale. He’d definitely broken a rib or two.

Warmth was spreading along his chest, stomach, and now his lap. He squirmed the rest of the way free and stood on shaky legs. His whole front was covered in blood – even his legs had gotten some when he squirmed free.

He was trembling from head to toe, but still felt an odd sense of calm as he looked down at the wolf – no, not a wolf. A werewolf, a human. He swallowed. He’d killed someone.

But he didn’t really feel anything. Actually he didn’t feel anything at all – even his ribs had stopped hurting. He did feel cold though. Maybe he was in shock? Is this what shock felt like? He didn’t know.

But he did know that no one would pick up a hitchhiker covered in blood.

In the distance he heard Koz and the wolves fighting. Snarls and a few sharp yelps echoed through the trees between the pounding of the rain and the distant claps of thunder. Jack looked down at the gun, its metal marred with blood. A passing headlight lit up the scene and Jack blinked owlishly. ‘Well,’ he thought, ‘if I can’t leave…’

He held the gun firmly in both hands, pointing downward – like Koz did – and set out into the woods, following the sounds of the wolves fighting.

*

Jack disappeared into the foliage, swift as a stag.

Koz was tempted to watch him go, but he had to focus on the threat at hand. He took a deep breath and tried to push aside his pessimism. He might never see Jack again, he realized. He grit his teeth. If he wasn’t going to see him again than it wasn’t going to be because Jack lost his life! Koz might get killed but he’d see to that!

Jamie made a brief movement like he wanted to follow Jack, but paused, looking to his unmoving sister, ears flicked back. Perhaps they’d decided that Jack was relatively harmless and were choosing to take care of Koz first? Koz had a bad feeling that said this wasn’t the case.

He could smell Jamie’s anxiety cutting in and out of the rain – strange in and of itself: they were down-wind, as obvious as they could possibly be.

The hair raised along the back of Koz’s neck. This was an ambush. 

He whirled around as a third wolf exploded from the underbrush.

Koz fell back, rolling onto his back before the werewolf could tackle him; he kicked up, and threw the wolf over his head. No problem, it was only some two hundred pounds.

He jerked his lower body up and jumped back into a standing position just as Jamie and Sophie screeched to a halt on either side of him, snarling ten feet from him, but otherwise not approaching.

Koz whirled around to see the third wolf, a large black beast, slowly approaching with its hackles raised.

Koz backed up, but a warning growl on his left let him know he wasn’t going to escape. The black wolf leapt forward, teeth snapping as Koz jumped to the side.

Belatedly, Koz realized he was snarling. A quick glance down at his hands revealed that his nails had warped into claws. The ache on the back of his neck had turned into itchy-painful pinpricks. He was on the verge of sprouting fur already.

He swallowed hard. It was too close to the full moon; he could hardly contain the change. He couldn’t turn now, he might not be able to control himself this close to the full moon.

He tried to quash the feeling, but his nails remained dark and curved. He’d have to be careful. 

Distracted as he was, he barely dodged the black wolf’s next lunge. Instead of grasping flesh, the beast’s jaws closed around the barrel of Koz’s shotgun. The wolf pulled, trying to yank the weapon away. The rain was falling harder now and Koz’s grip on the weapon was slick, but he dug his wolfish claws in and didn’t let up. He twisted the weapon so the wolf’s head bent awkwardly. Still, the beast didn’t let go, growling and tugging sharply.

Sophie darted forward, snarling as she lunged for Koz’s leg.

Koz planted his feet and turned, the muscles in his arms and shoulders straining as he pulled the black wolf after him, flinging the beast into the she-wolf. 

Sophie let out a yelp as she was knocked off her feet and the black wolf let go in his surprise as they fell into a heap. 

Koz yanked the gun away and spotted Jamie coming towards him. He pulled the gun up and fired – too quick to aim but still managing to hit the boy wolf in the shoulder.

Jamie collapsed, mud splattering as he shrieked in pain. Non-silver bullets may not be fatal to a werewolf, but a load of buckshot still hurt like hell.

Koz whirled around as the black wolf leapt up and lunged toward him, jaws wide. Koz swung his gun and struck the wolf’s lower jaw with a sickening crack.

The black wolf yelped and stumbled away, his jaw hanging limply from his skull.

Sophie roared and leapt at him, paws slick on the muddy ground.

Koz dodged left and she whirled to face him, snarling savagely. With a jolt he realized that her eye hadn’t healed. A thin scar marred the side of her head – the pricks of Koz’s teeth where he’d bitten her etched into her skin, even going over her sunken eyelid.

She jumped, Koz dodged, and the she-wolf ended up flying past and falling into the black wolf as he crept up behind Koz. It was almost comical how the two struggled to disentangle themselves.

Sophie leapt up and darted forward, but the black wolf was faster still, charging ahead of her and snarling – a feet that would’ve been much more intimidating if his jaw weren’t still broken. As it was, he drooled more than he growled.

Sophie tried to circle around him and come at Koz, but the black wolf snapped at her; she growled at him, ears folded back.

Interesting. It seemed there was a pecking order problem. What could Koz do but take advantage of their distraction? He raised his gun and aimed for Sophie.

Jamie let out a warning bark and Sophie darted away, not even bothering to look. Better for her. The black wolf looked to Jamie in confusion and in that moment, Koz re-aimed and fired.

The black wolf jumped straight up, then collapsed heavily, eyes rolling back in his skull. Rain poured onto his wet fur, dripping into the series of leaking holes in his head and mixing with the red. Amazingly, the searing pellets in his brain wouldn’t kill him. Maybe he’d be a little brain-damaged, but he’d recover. Eventually.

For now, Koz only had the two pups to worry about – and one of them was injured. The other was furious.

Sophie seemed to leer at him, as if she knew he was out of bullets and were teasing him for it. Koz wasn’t worried, he’d taken her once before without a weapon and he’d come out on top.

“Come on,” he growled, sharpened teeth prickling his lips. “I’ll take your other eye too!”

Sophie snarled and charged forward, Koz ran at her ahead as well, teeth bared, holding his shotgun by the rain-slick barrel – ready to club her unconscious if need be – but the she-wolf stopped, her paws squelching in the mud she braked so fast. She back up, tail between her legs as she whined pathetically.

The hair rose on the back of Koz’s neck. A scent came creeping towards him through the falling rain. The ache of the change stole over him, growing stronger and stronger as the source of the smell drew nearer and nearer. He knew almost instinctively that it was the musk of a male werewolf – big and dangerous. 

He whirled towards the source just as a bolt of lightning flashed, illuminating the forest in stark shadows and brilliant light – but none of the tangled arms of the trees or rippling leaves could compare to the blinding whiteness of the massive wolf standing not twenty feet from him. Lightning cracked again overhead and Koz saw red eyes shining, pupils dilating, hackles rising over curved teeth.

The newcomer glared past Koz, towards Sophie and she squeezed her smaller frame against the ground, mud soaking her sandy coat as she tried to make herself as small as she could.

But Koz didn’t see, all he could focus on were those two red eyes – those massive teeth!

Red teeth. Crunching, Cracking. The snap of bone and smack of lips. Koz’s whole body jerked as the memory consumed him. The ache in his neck blossomed into agony as his body changed. The memories dimmed, his torment fading sweetly. He snarled around his fangs and glared up at those red eyes, lunging forward as his mind melted into a pure blissfully bestial rage.

*

Jack fumbled through the dark, picking up speed as the sound of sharp yelping echoed ahead of him. He nearly hit another tree, glanced away from its trunk and fell over a massive, wet, furry shape. 

He sprang up to his feet in an instant, gun up and aimed at the still form. All he could see was that it was black and roughly the same size as the wolf that had collapsed on him just earlier. It felt as though his stomach dropped through the ground. It was a black wolf!

“Koz?” Jack ran around to look at the beast’s face, gently touching the beast’s head and then yanking his hand away when its broken skull gave way beneath his fingers, sticky blood staining his fingers. He looked down in horror. “Koz?!” He choked. The wolf let out a wheeze, eyes fluttering at the noise – opening just enough for Jack to see glowing green eyes beneath the creature’s eyelids. Not Koz. Jack let out a sigh of relief, then jumped to hear sound of a scuffle go up again, but much closer.

There was a crashing in the brush nearby and Jack held the gun firmly in his hands and pressed on towards it. 

Lightning flashed and Jack saw Koz – and it could only be Koz – pinned down by Sophie – although not quite losing. His teeth clamped around her neck while she struggled to pull away. 

The flash died away, leaving Jack to furiously blink the spots from his vision. He took a few steps back, blind and suddenly frightened. Where was Jamie? What was going on?

He could only barely see Koz and Sophie because one was so dark and the other so pale. Koz rolled over and yanked Sophie after him, pinning her down. The she-wolf struggled a moment, limbs flailing and scratching at his underbelly until she slowly went limp. Then he let go and leapt away, yellow eyes flashing as he looked around wildly.

“Koz?”

Koz’s eyes snapped to him and Jack took a step back because God, he forgot how intimidating wolf-Koz was. He forced himself to smile and offer out a shaky hand. “Koz?”

There was another flash of lightning overhead illuminating the way Koz’s dark form crouched low, rainwater trickling down his jaw as his lips pulled back over his teeth. The werewolf snarled and took a step towards him.

Jack froze. Koz wasn’t growling at him, was he? 

Then Koz sprang – launching himself at Jack so fast it was all Jack could do to raise his arms, flinching back as his hands balled up – accidentally pulling the trigger on Koz’s pistol. 

BANG! Right in front of Koz and Jack’s faces, the kickback sending Jack’s arm flinging painfully to the side as the bullet whizzed away through the rain and Jack was knocked off his feet by the startled werewolf.

Jack’s injured ribs put up a violent protest against the rough treatment and for a moment he feared suffocation alongside mauling – but Koz’s weight disappeared instantly. 

Jack hauled himself to his feet a moment later and took several steps back, holding the gun properly in both hands. He watched Koz as the massive black wolf backed away, edging into the foliage. There was a distant flash – dim but just bright enough for Jack to see his companion pressed low to the ground, ears back, tail low.

Koz let out a soft keen and Jack let out a breath of relief. “It’s okay, Koz—” He took a step forward and the wolf bolted away, his dark form disappearing instantly into the gloom and rain.

Jack stood alone for a moment, stunned and frightened and wet. 

He heard a whimper at his side and whirled, gun raised, to see Jamie just behind him. Even in the dark, Jack could tell how pathetic he looked. Lightning flickered in the distance and for a second Jack saw the soaked pup’s brown fur stained red, blood seeping profusely from a wound in his shoulder. He looked up at Jack, his eyes – brown as a human, golden as a wolf – seemed watery and sad.

Jack squared his shoulders and put his finger on the trigger, but it was an empty gesture. He didn’t want to kill Jamie; he didn’t even want to hurt him. That other wolf had been trying to kill him - Jamie just seemed too… resigned.

Jack lowered his gun and watched the surprise grow in Jamie’s eyes. He tipped his head to the side, ears tucked back - it was almost cute.

“I’m sorry,” Jack said.

Jamie’s eyes flitted past him suddenly and he flattened himself to the ground with a whine.

Jack turned and gasped.

With the metaphorical werewolf clown-car this forest had turned out to be – he probably shouldn’t have been surprised to see another one standing between him and Sophie. Even in the gloom he could see it almost perfectly – its fur was so white and its eyes glowed red like some sort of monstrous specter.

Jack was petrified as the wolf looked at him, almost quizzically, tilting his head to the side slightly.

Red eyes, Jack realized. An albino. Like the White Wolf, Koz had mentioned.

“Shit.” Jack lifted his gun just as the wolf pounced. The gun fired under the wolf’s foreleg, the bullet whizzing pas his side harmlessly. 

‘Of course, I couldn’t be so lucky twice,’ Jack thought right before the wolf clamped down on his shoulder and pain exploded across his senses.

Jack screamed as the wolf shook his head, tearing flesh and muscle alike. The teeth shifted from his shoulder and squeezed, teeth pierced his throat and Jack gasped blood.

Through the burning agony of muscle ripped free from bone, Jack felt the wolf let go. There was a near deafening roar and then the White Wolf was gone with a surprised yelp, barreled over by an enraged shadowy beast with yellow eyes - Koz.

Blood that wasn’t Jack’s spattered the ground as Koz sank his teeth into the albino’s ruff and yanked, tearing flesh before the White Wolf could retaliate by thrashing, smashing his skull into Koz’s hard enough to send him staggering away.

Koz let go and the White Wolf backed away as Sophie stumbled to her feet and darted between them, snarling unsteadily at Koz while Jamie hobbled after her.

The White Wolf shook his head casually, flecking them all with blood, before he turned and strode away.

Koz made to follow, but Sophie barred his way. Jamie slunk after the pale alpha, whimpering softly and sparing glances towards Jack’s still, bloodied form.

Jack hardly noticed the exchange.

Oh God, he’d been bitten. Jack would be slightly more alarmed if he weren’t certain he was about to die. He didn’t know how bad the wound was – he couldn’t feel his left arm – was it even still there? He wouldn’t be surprised if he’d been ripped apart.

He coughed and blood flooded his mouth – the taste burning his tongue as the motion sent his torn throat into spasms. He gasped for air, coughed, breathed, gargling nasty thick blood. He choked.

Fat, heavy raindrops splattered down on him, dripping onto his face and following a trail of tears running down his face - he didn’t feel any of it.

A shadow loomed over him and Jack looked up through watery lashes to see Koz returned.

The black wolf whined, ears flattened to his head as he crept closer.

For a moment, Jack felt a spear of panic as the beast’s muzzle pressed against his wound – but the touch was gentle. A cold nose pressed against the uninjured portion of Jack’s neck and then trailed up. Koz licked his cheek gently, whining.

The massive wolf lay down against his side; furry head leaning gently against his so every one of the beast’s breaths ruffled Jack’s hair.

Jack wheezed, coughed, and nearly whimpered, but the sound couldn’t survive in his shredded throat.

Koz nuzzled his hair with a cold, wet nose. Tears flowed freely from Jack’s eyes and he struggled in vain for air. The dark forest grew darker still as a strange, senseless calm stole over him.

He realized he could feel Koz’s damp fur against his left hand. He moved his fingers weakly – an attempt at petting the wolf – his only companion in his last moments. In return, Koz gently licked his cheek again. With a wet sigh, Jack closed his eyes, the last of his tears squeezing free before darkness stole over him at last.

*

The first thing Koz was aware of was bird song. It was pleasant. Sweet, like the pale morning light seeping through his eyelids. He needed to get up. Sera would wake soon and he needed to shower before she could claim the bathroom in the name of her pre-teen beauty routine. 

He took in a deep, sleepy breath. Instantly his senses were flooded with the scent of blood. His eyes snapped open.

Jack lay beside him, his skin nearly white – red splattered across his torso, seeped across the ground, even smeared up across his cheek. The skin on his neck and shoulder was ripped open to reveal the shreds of torn muscle and flecks of bone scraped by teeth left bare for the rising sun to see.

Koz jack-knifed away, a cry on his lips. He leapt to his feet, backed away, stumbled and fell, twigs and rocks jabbing into his bare skin, mud slicking up his sides. His eyes fixed on Jack’s still body, his mind clouded with memories of teeth and bones and red eyes.

“No. God, no.” Someone was moaning. It was him. Half-words and desperate pleas fluttered through the air and vanished into nothing.

He killed him. He killed him. He killed Jack.

A wave of nausea washed over him and he clapped a hand over his mouth. Swallowing hard before he realized his mouth was sticky. His hand came away covered in flakes of red.

Koz retched, his body convulsing in on itself as he spilled the contents of his stomach over the dewy grass. He gasped, his throat searing and when he saw the sickly red color of his own bile, he retched again.

“Oh God.” His whole body trembled as he crouched on the muddy earth.

He’d killed Jack.

He tried to look up, tried to make himself look at the boy – but he couldn’t. He’d rather look at his own sick than look at what he’d done. 

He’d killed before – Lord knew, he’d killed before. But never something so guiltless - so without a chance of fighting back. And he didn’t remember it. He remembered red eyes and then… bird song. In all his human years of killing monsters he’d finally killed a human as a monster.

He wanted to die. 

This was the reason he’d come out here. It was to avoid this very scenario that he’d come out here!

Where was his gun?

He looked up slowly, eyes skating over Jack’s still form and then off him again. Then back again suddenly. He stared.

The world seemed to slow down and still as Koz stared, stared, stared at Jack’s chest. His eyes were wide, his shaking becoming more violent, all thought and emotion vanishing in the wake of a shock as he watched Jack’s thin torso gently rise and fall as the boy clung – unbelievably – to life. 

Alive.

He couldn’t stand. He wouldn’t try. He crawled closer.

Alive?

Jack’s eyelids fluttered, his head shifted and he let out a shallow gasp of pain.

Koz reached out, almost afraid his touch might break the pale body breathing softly beside him. He touched his cheek.

He was warm. Pale as death but hot to the touch – he was alive.

“Oh God.” A torrent of emotion washed over him – shock, relief, happiness, sorrow, regret - dread. 

Surviving a werewolf bite wasn’t surviving at all.

The world seemed to click back into order. Jack was a werewolf now. Maybe he’d die from the transformation in the next few days – but he wasn’t human anymore.

 

Jack very well might die in the next few days. He’d already suffered massive blood loss, and now he would have a terrible fever while his body slowly turned into something less than human. He’d be nearly comatose in this time – he might die of thirst or hunger or the fever or he could seize and choke on his own bile – he might die, but it was taking chances that had ended Jack’s humanity.

Koz looked around and his eyes fell on his pistol, lying just by Jack’s hand. 

He reached over the boy’s body and picked up the weapon. Dried blood flaked off the handle and stuck to his palm. He wasn’t shaking now. His body realized how familiar this was and part of his mind did too – shutting down into the cold, calculating machine he’d always needed on the hunt. The other half of his mind was still in turmoil. How he wished Jack had been able to kill him! 

He let the cold hunter side take over. Taking a deep breath, he pressed the barrel of the gun to Jack’s temple.

He was still and he was reeling. 

He’d never see Jack smile again.

He could. He didn’t have to kill him.

He did. It was only a matter of time before Jack hurt someone just like Koz had. 

North should have let Bunny kill him. 

Koz wouldn’t make the same mistake he had. 

Once Jack was gone, he’d kill himself too.

He looked down at Jack’s pale face one last time. 

“I’m sorry.” 

He pulled the trigger.

Click.

Koz gasped sharply and stared at the weapon in shock. ‘Click?’ It wasn’t supposed to do that! It was supposed to go off! Jack was supposed to die and then Koz could die! Why wasn’t the gun working?

He pulled the trigger again, then again. Each time the only response was an empty click.

With shaking hands he snapped open the chamber. Empty? How could it be empty? His mind whirled. He’d had three rounds left when he gave the gun to Jack!

Jack fired the gun!

“Oh, God,” Koz moaned. “No. No no no.” He pressed his head to the weapon’s cold, metal handle. “No…” The black and white world of the hunt came crashing around his ears. What had he done? How could he? How could he?!

How could he possibly face North or Bunny or Seraphina ever again? He’d been a monster in form only before – but this? He’d ended a life as a wolf – maybe not an actual life, but still, Jack’s human life was over and now he couldn’t even end his suffering.

He’d failed spectacularly. He hadn’t protected himself enough to stop himself from getting the bite and now he’d failed Jack and now Jack and Seraphina and everyone else he cared for would suffer for it and continue suffering for it because – after all this time, after all his attempts and failures and steeling his nerve and attempting again – he still couldn’t even kill himself properly!

Koz sucked in a shaking gasp and let out a sob. He was starving, unclothed and aching, his mouth covered in blood and he’d ended the life of an innocent.

What could he do? No one would pick them up at the highway except the authorities – and Jack couldn’t go to a hospital. Should he take Jack to North’s and beg forgiveness? Claussen was so far, two days from here and—

Tonight the moon would be too full to resist. Maybe he wouldn’t turn, but Jack would. Tears rolled freely down his face, running clean lines through the dried blood. No death and no escape, what could he do?

He dropped the gun and cried, burying his face in his hands and giving in. He let it out until he had nothing left to give and then he wiped his eyes, picked up Jack’s skeletal body, and carried him deeper into the forest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good news: There will be a sequel!
> 
> Bad news: It will come out after a brief hiatus.
> 
> During my hiatus I'm going to:  
> \- Work on finishing the second arc, of which I have written 8 chapters so far and will probably have 2-4 more.  
> \- Get a rough outline of the third arc (I am in this for the long-haul, man).  
> \- Do some final edits on an original manuscript so I can feel less guilty about always working on fic and can be posting fic whilst sending my manuscript out to publishers.
> 
> Thank you everyone for reading, commenting, leaving kudos, and adding this story to your bookmarks! This is the first fic I've ever written to have gotten such traction and I can't express how excited and honored I am that you guys take time to read this silly, Teen Wolf-inspired werewolf!au. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

**Author's Note:**

> Come find my dumb rotg blog on tumbub, I post art and junk: http://guardian-of-da-gay.tumblr.com/
> 
> Official tag for this on tumblr is #notteenwolf


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